tihv<xvy  of  t:he  ^Theological  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BV  1085  .M3  M7 

Morse,  Richard  Gary,  1846 

1926, 
Robert  R.  McBurney 


'l/*^ 


Robert   R.    McBT'^R>rEY 
1897 


ROBERT  R.  McBURNEY 


A 
MEMORIAL 


NOV  281953 


/; 


t^O. 


LOGICAL  St' 


>V^^ 


1837-1898 


Copyrighted  1899 

by 

The  International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 

Christian  A£80ciations 


CONTENTS 


Sketch            

5 

Address  by  Right  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  LL 

.  D.    37 

"    William  E.  Dodge 

42 

"    William  W.  HoppiN 

48 

*'    Richard  C.  Morse    . 

52 

"    Hon.  ElihuRoot     . 

61 

"    Cephas  Brainerd     .        .        .        . 

62 

Memorial 

70 

Cablegrams  and  other  testimonies   . 

73 

Resolutions 

100 

ROBERT  R.  McBURNEY 


A  Sketch 

by 

Richard  C.  Morse 


I.       BOYHOOD    AND    YOUTH,    1837-1854. 

Robert  Ross  McBurney  was  born  March 
thirty-first,  1837,  at  Castleblayney,  a  small 
market  town  in  County  Monaghan,  in  the 
north  of  Ireland.  His  father,  a  popular  phy- 
sician with  a  large  practice,  was  an  active 
member  and  officer  in  the  leading  Presbyterian 
church  of  Castleblayney.  Robert's  mother,  an 
ardent  Methodist,  was  connected  with  a  small 
Wesleyan  chapel  near  their  home.  Both  pa- 
rents were  devout  and  active  Christians.  Very 
early  in  his  life  the  boy  responded  to  the  reli- 
gious teaching  of  his  mother  and  father.  He 
often  recalled  vividly  his  conversion  at  the  age 
of  twelve  years.  In  the  light  of  his  future  life 
work  we  learn  with  peculiar  interest  that,  while 
he  regularly  accompanied  his  parents  to  the 
Presbyterian  church  services  and  attended  the 
Sunday-school,  at  another  hour  on  each  Lord's 
day  he  was  to  be  found  in  the  Wesleyan  Sun- 
day-school. This  double  attendance  at  Sunday- 
school  indicated  his  early  interest  in  the  Bible 
and  its  teachings. 


His  education  at  school  was  limited  to  the 
facilities  furnished  in  his  native  town.  But  he 
was  not  as  a  child  fond  of  books,  and  though 
offered  by  his  father  the  opportunity  of  a  col- 
lege course,  he  preferred  a  speedier  entrance 
upon  active  life  and  self-support.  His  early 
familiarity  with  the  Scriptures,  however,  and 
love  for  their  study ,  and  for  good  hymns,  in  which 
he  always  delighted,  proved  admirable  ground- 
work for  that  liberal  education  which  in  later 
years,  as  he  was  busy  with  his  life  work,  he  so 
thoroughly  wrought  out  for  himself.  As  a  boy, 
too,  he  showed  that  strong,  conscientious  adher- 
ence to  what  he  conceived  to  be  right  which 
ever  after  characterized  him.  He  fearlessly 
took  his  stand  among  those  of  his  own  age 
against  indulgence  in  questionable  amusements. 
On  one  occasion,  having  serious  scruples  about 
himself  attending  such  a  place  of  amusement 
when  solicited  to  do  so  by  one  of  his  own  rela- 
tives who  had  a  just  claim  on  his  attention,  he 
courteously  consented  to  be  her  escort  to  the 
door  but  did  not  go  further.  He  was  faithful 
to  his  obligation  as  a  gentleman,  but  true  to  his 
conviction  of  duty  as  a  Christian. 

His  ministry  to  the  sick  and  distressed  also 
began  in  his  boyhood.  Dr.  McBurney,  in  addi- 
tion to  his  practice  as  a  physician,  kept  open  a 
dispensary.  Robert  became  familiar  with  the 
various  drugs  and  remedies,  and  in  emergencies 
during  his  father's  frequent  and  necessary 
6 


absences  the  boy  was  able  to  respond  intelligently 
to  many  calls  for  help,  and  thus  early  learned 
to  sympathize  with  and  minister  to  the  suffer- 
ing. On  market  days  the  town  was  often  the 
scene  of  disorder  and  drunkenness,  and  in  car- 
ing for  many  a  victim  of  drink  and  fighting  he 
learned  as  a  boy  that  hatred  for  the  sin  and 
that  loving  solicitude  for  the  sinner  which  so 
strongly  characterized  him  in  his  life  work. 

It  was  during  his  boyhood  that  he  met  with 
saddest  bereavement  in  the  death  of  his  devout 
and  loving  mother.  When  he  was  seventeen 
years  old  he  left  his  home  and  native  country 
to  make  a  beginning  of  business  life  in  the 
great  far  away  city  of  the  new  world. 

II.       BEGINNING    OF    LIFE   AND  WORK   IN    NEW  YORKL 
CITY,    1854-1862. 

On  his  arrival  in  New  York,  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1854,  he  was  met  by  one  of  his  teachers 
at  Castleblayney  who  had  preceded  him  in  com- 
ing to  this  country,  and  who,  on  the  evening  of 
his  first  day  in  the  city,  introduced  him  to  the 
fellowship  and  to  the  rooms  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  then  located  on 
the  second  floor  of  the  Stuyvesant  Institute, 
at  No.  659  Broadway.  He  soon  entered  the 
employ  of  a  hat  manufacturer,  and  there 
learned  his  trade.  Making  choice  of  the  church 
of  his  mother,  he  promptly  joined  the  Mulberry 


Street  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  since  known 
as  St.  Paul's  church,  and  began  to  attend  the 
Sunday-school.  He  also  became  interested  in 
a  Wednesday  night  prayer  meeting  which  was 
started  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  church  in  Ful- 
ton street,  and  helped  to  put  cards  in  store 
windows  advertising  the  meeting.  During  the 
following  eight  years  (1854-1861)  he  continued 
at  his  trade  and  in  as  active  connection  with 
church,  Sunday-school  and  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  as  a  very  quiet  and 
almost  painfully  diffident  young  man  could  be. 

The  New  York  association  had  been  organ- 
ized in  1852.  During  this  first  decade  of  its 
life,  though  naturally  regarded  by  most  as  a 
doubtful  experiment,  it  embraced  in  its  mem- 
bership a  group  of  junior  merchants  and  pro- 
fessional men  who  have  since  proved  to  be  men 
of  remarkable  ability.  No  correct  account  of 
the  growth  of  the  association  movement  in 
New  York  city  and  on  the  American  continent 
can  be  given  without  reckoning  with  the  ex- 
traordinary capacity  and  influence  of  some  of 
the  men  composing  this  group.*      The   same 


*As  belonging  to  this  group  may  be  mentioned,  among  those 
who  have  died,  Howard  Crosby,  Elbert  B.  Monroe,  C.  R.  Agnew, 
William  F.  Lee,  Austin  Abbott,  Edward  Austen,  Edward  Colgate, 
Samuel  Colgate,  A.  D.  F.  Randolph,  S.  W.  Stebbins,  Charles 
Scribner,  Elliott  F.  Shepard,  John  B.  Trevor,  John  Crerar,  A.  S. 
Barnes,  Peter  Carter,  Harvey  Fisk,  Henry  B.  Hyde. 

Among  the  living,  William  E.  Dodge,  Morris  K.  Jesup,  Cephas 
Brainerd,  James  Stokes,  William  W.  Hoppin,  John  Crosby  Brown, 


ability  which  has  since  brought  them  to  the 
front  in  their  various  callings  then  showed 
itself  in  the  formation  and  development  of  the 
New  York  association,  with  its  novel  organi- 
zation, work  and  methods.  It  was  also  seen  in 
their  advocacy  of  this  work  in  successive  con- 
ventions of  delegates  representing  the  entire 
continent.  Here  they  were  ultimately  assigned 
by  their  fellow  delegates  such  a  leadership  in 
the  supervision  and  extension  of  the  organiza- 
tion that  the  form  of  its  work,  as  wrought  out 
in  New  York,  has  been  substantially  repro- 
duced in  the  other  cities  of  the  continent.  Mr. 
McBumey's  position  in  this  group  at  the  begin- 
ning and  for  the  first  eight  years  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  that  of  a  volunteer  and  very  diffident 
worker. 

At  the  end  of  this  period  he  was  thrown  out 
of  employment  by  the  closing  of  the  establish- 
ment in  which  he  had  been  at  work.  Provi- 
dentially at  this  time  the  association  was  with- 
out any  one  in  charge  of  its  rooms  as  caretaker 
or  librarian,  and  Mr.  McBurney  was  asked  to 
take  the  position  temporarily.  The  temporary 
character  of  the  arrangement,  and  the  condition 
of  the  association  treasury  are  discernible  in  the 
fact  that  the  weekly  compensation  agreed  upon 


W.  Harman  Brown,  D.  Willis  James,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  Ver- 
ranus  Morse,  Timothy  G.  Sellew,  Charles  E.  Whitehead,  L. 
Bolton  Bangs,  John  S.  Bussing,  Charles  Lanier,  John  E.  Parsons, 
John  S.  Kennedy,  Benjamin  Lord,  Richard  C.  McCormick,  A.  A. 
Raven,  John  Sloane,  Ralph  Wells,  James  B.  Colgate,  Bowles 
Colgate,  Jacob  F.  Wyckoff,  Caleb  B.  Knerals,  S.  G.  Goodrich. 


was  five  dollars,  and  he  was  confronted  with  the 
information  that  the  gas  had  been  shut  off  for 
six  months  and  that  the  rent  for  the  same 
period  was  unpaid. 

III.       FIRST    TEN    YEARS    AS    EMPLOYED    OFFICER    OF 
THE    NEW    YORK    ASSOCIATION,    1862-1871. 

His  first  official  act  on  beginning  his  new 
duties,  July  eleventh,  1862,  was  to  sweep  out 
and  arrange  the  small  rooms  of  the  association, 
then  located  in  the  Bible  House.  Soon  after- 
ward, during  a  holiday  a  young  man  wandered 
into  the  rooms,  a  stranger,  as  Mr.  McBurney 
himself  has  been  eight  years  before  on  his 
arrival  in  the  city.  Before  that  holiday  closed 
the  new  officer  had  the  joy  of  leading  the  young 
man  to  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  this  gra- 
cious incident  that  led  him  to  resolve  to  devote 
his  life  to  Christian  work.  But  whether  the 
employed  officer  of  the  association  could  find  in 
that  office  a  life  work,  seemed  questionable  in 
that  infant  period  of  the  organization.  For 
several  succeeding  years  the  office  and  officer, 
the  organization,  its  members  and  leaders,  grew 
together  in  the  development  of  the  work,  and 
in  the  fuller  understanding  of  its  object  and 
methods.  Early  in  this  period  (1862-1871)  Mr. 
McBurney  was  so  distrustful  of  himself  and  of 
his  qualification  for  the  new  office  that  he  left  it 
and  the  city  for  a  short  time.  But  soon  after 
his  return  to  New  York  he  was  recalled  by  the 
association.      He  accepted,    refusing    however 


an  increase  of  salary,  which  had  been  offered  to 
him  as  one  inducement  to  return. 

/.     The  Parent  Association  Building. 

During  this  period  the  association  moved  into 
better  quarters,  and  the  conception  was  gradu- 
ally formed  of  the  building  erected  (1864-1869) 
on  the  corner  of  Fourth  avenue  and  Twenty- 
third  street — the  first  structure  ever  carefully 
planned  and  built  to  accommodate  what  has 
since  become  familiarly  known  as  the  distinc- 
tive, all-round  work  of  the  association,  physical, 
intellectual,  social,  and  spiritual. 

Its  originators  and  promoters  had,  to  use  the 
words  of  their  leader  and  president,  "the  idea 
that  if  a  building  could  be  erected  answering 
to  a  club  house  for  young  men,  with  every- 
thing in  it  calculated  to  exert  a  cheering  and 
brotherly  influence,  where  they  could  grasp 
a  friendly  hand  when  they  came  in,  and  where 
gymnasiums  and  music  and  classes  for  study 
were  to  be  found  as  well  as  religious  and  Bible 
meetings,  an  influence  would  thus  be  exerted 
upon  these  young  men  that  would  hold  and 
gradually  mold  them  until  their  habits  were 
fixed  in  the  right  direction. "  The  idea  was  a 
novel  and  attractive  one.  But  the  leaders  were 
men  of  large  and  wise  hopefulness,  as  well  as  of 
rare  ability. 

The  extended  work  contemplated  in  the  plan 
and  appointments  of  the  building  called  for  a 
change  in  the  constitution,  and  in  seeking  from 
II 


the  legislature  a  special  charter,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  president,  the  word  "physical"  was 
added  to  the  definition  of  the  object  of  the 
association,  causing  it  to  read,  as  amended: 
"The  improvement  of  the  spiritual,  mental, 
social,  and  physical  condition  of  young  men." 
This  was  the  first  association  constitution  so 
altered  and  enlarged. 

The  building  committee  consisted  of  Messrs. 
William  E.  Dodge,  Cephas  Brainerd,  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan,  Abner  W.  Colgate,  and  R.  R. 
McBumey.  All  his  associates  on  this  committee 
survive  Mr.  McBurney. 

The  new  building  called  for  what  was  then 
deemed  the  enormous  sum  of  half  a  million 
dollars.  But  the  faith,  energy,  and  capacity  of 
the  young  men  associated  in  this  undertaking 
were  equal  to  the  emergency.  Theirs  was  a 
faith  which  confidently  sought  to  realize  a 
broader  and  more  comprehensive  work  for 
young  men  than  had  yet  been  attempted.  In 
their  planning  and  discussions  they  were  not 
only  shaping  this  new  work  and  a  new  type  of 
building  to  accommodate  it,  but  they  were  also 
exerting  a  molding  influence  upon  that  one  of 
their  number  who  was  to  give  the  entire  enthu- 
siasm of  his  life  and  the  energy  of  every  faculty 
to  this  work.  Mr.  McBurney  proved  equal  to 
the  opportunity  given  him.  As  the  responsible 
employed  officer  of  the  association  he  performed 

12 


his  part  in  administration  and  organization. 
The  ofi&cers  and  directors  cooperated  vigilantly 
in  every  department.  The  large  building  was 
occupied  and  filled  with  a  work  and  workers 
which  proved  a  marvelous  blessing  to  the  young 
men  of  New  York  not  only,  but  of  many  other 
cities  also. 

Three  hundred  and  fifty  association  buildings 
have  since  been  erected  on  this  continent,  cost- 
ing over  twenty  million  dollars.  Many  have 
also  been  erected  on  other  continents,  but  all 
the  best  of  them  are  modeled  after  this  original 
building.  There  are  certainly  few,  if  any, 
structures  in  the  capital  city  of  the  new  world 
of  which  this  can  be  truthfully  said.  In  the 
planning  and  erection  of  these  succeeding  struc- 
tures Mr.  McBurney  was  often  carefully  con- 
sulted by  architect  and  association  secretary. 
Many  improvements,  suggested  by  experience, 
were  introduced.  But  the  type  remained  unal- 
tered. One  of  the  latest  of  these  buildings, 
embodying  all  of  improvement  that  had  been 
realized,  was  erected  in  the  year  just  preceding 
his  last  illness  under  Mr.  McBurney 's  own  eye, 
at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars,  for  the  West  Side 
branch  of  the  New  York  association.  Building 
and  equipment  in  every  detail  bear  the  evidence 
of  his  long  experience,  ripened  by  successful 
association  administration  and  leadership,  dur- 
ing the  twenty-seven  years'  interval  between 
the  completion  and  dedication  of  these  two 
buildings. 

13 


Such  was  the  strong  shaping  influence  exerted 
within  the  association  movement  by  those  who 
planned  and  wrought  in  this  initial  building. 
It  would  be  equally  interesting  to  trace  the 
corresponding  influence  which  the  three  hun- 
dred of  its  type  have  slowly  exerted,  during 
the  last  thirty  years,  upon  ecclesiastical  and 
other  Christian  architecture  —  an  influence 
showing  itself  in  the  varied  forms  of  church 
houses  and  in  other  peculiar  features  of  institu- 
tional churches. 

With  the  erection  of  the  Twenty-third  street 
building,  in  1869,  it  may  be  justly  said  that  the 
leadership  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation movement  passed  to  the  New  York 
association.  The  growth  of  the  movement  since 
then,  and  its  extension,  first  in  each  association 
to  the  whole  man,  body,  mind,  and  spirit,  and 
then  throughout  the  brotherhood  to  various 
classes  of  young  men  in  cities  and  towns,  in 
colleges  and  schools,  in  railroad  and  other 
industries,  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  in  for- 
eign mission  lands,  can  be  traced  directly  to 
influences  centering  in  New  York,  as  the 
radiating  point  whence  efliciency,  training  and 
development  have  come. 

2,    A  leader  in  the  International  Organization. 

During  this  critical  formative  period  (1862- 
1872)  Mr.  McBurney,  joining  a  few  prominent 
members  of  the  New  York  association,  began 
in  1865  his  steady  attendance  upon  the  inter- 

14 


national  conventions,  and  performed  well  his 
part  as  one  of  the  convention  leaders  in  shap- 
ing the  work  and  mission  of  that  representative 
assembly  of  the  associations:  (1)  By  the  estab- 
lishment of  its  executive  committee  in  New 
York  City;  (2)  by  the  calling  of  state  conven- 
tions, and  the  formation  of  state  organizations; 
(3)  by  the  appointment  of  the  day  and  week  of 
prayer  for  young  men  in  November;  (4)  by 
adopting  the  evangelical  basis  of  membership, 
which  has  proved  so  effective  in  maintaining 
the  fellowship  of  the  churches  with  the  associa- 
tions ;  (5)  by  the  suggestion  and  consideration 
in  successive  conventions  of  the  various  phases 
of  this  work  for  young  men  which  the  best 
experience  of  the  best  associations  pointed  out 
as  of  vital  importance.  In  all  this  relation  to 
the  international  convention  and  committee 
he  acted  as  one  of  the  strong  group  of  delegates 
from  New  York,  who  were  indispensable  lead- 
ers in  planning  the  work  and  accomplishing 
the  results  which  have  been  mentioned. 

J.    Father  of  the  State  Work  of  New  York. 

During  this  early  period  also,  as  correspond- 
ing member  for  New  York  state  of  the  inter- 
national committee,  he  became  the  founder  and 
father  of  the  New  York  state  organization. 
Here,  in  the  convention  of  1867,  almost  single 
handed,  he  secured  through  patient  discusssion 
in  a  protracted  session  the  adoption  of  the 
evangelical  basis,  which  in  the  following  year 

15 


was  also  adopted  for  the  entire  American  broth- 
erhood by  the  international  convention  at 
Detroit,  and  further  defined  and  ratified  by  the 
Portland  convention  of  1869.  Three  times  dur- 
ing the  early  period  of  the  New  York  state  con- 
vention he  was  chosen  its  president. 

His  vigilant  care  and  interest  were  shown  in 
the  choice  of  an  efficient  state  secretary  and  in 
helpful  cooperation  with  him.  On  the  floor  of 
the  state  convention  he  continued  to  the  end 
of  his  life  the  strongest,  most  experienced  and 
influential  delegate.  Here,  as  in  his  many  other 
relationships,  he  proved  himself  to  be  in  a 
rare  way  both  conservative  and  progressive ; 
often  slow  to  be  convinced,  yet  always  giving 
wise  direction  to  conclusions  reached  and  action 
proposed.  On  the  other  hand,  he  often  led 
boldly  in  originating  new  measures  and  in 
carrying  them  out  successfully. 

Coming  to  the  close  of  this  eventful  period  of 
begfinnings,  so  full  of  evidence,  as  we  now  see, 
of  his  qualification  for  the  longer  and  larger 
work  that  lay  before  him,  it  seems  to  us  surpris- 
ing that  his  mind  was  not  yet  fully  settled  upon 
a  life  continuance  in  the  secretaryship.  But  the 
future  of  the  association  movement,  which  is 
now  understood  so  clearly,  was  then  dimly  dis- 
cerned and  vaguely  appreciated.  It  was  in  the 
year  1869,  when  the  new  association  building 
was  approaching  completion,  that  he  expressed 
his  serious  thought  of  studying  for  the  ministry, 
i6 


K013KRT     R.     McBUKNEV 

1S(>T 


on  the  ground  that  in  the  secretaryship  there 
was  not  to  be  found  a  calling  and  work  for  life. 
Soon  he  would  be  too  old,  he  thought,  to  be 
attractive  to  young  men,  and  his  secretarial 
usefulness  would  cease.  Such  a  conviction  was 
held  then  and  for  years  later,  and  is,  indeed, 
held  to-day  by  not  a  few  of  the  strong  men  in 
the  work.  If  the  association  was  in  its  youth  at 
this  time,  its  executive  office  was  in  its  very 
infancy. 

Later  definite  offer  came  to  him  of  a  secre- 
taryship in  one  of  the  leading  interdenomina- 
tional societies  of  the  country,  with  a  salary 
much  larger  than  he  ever  received  in  the  asso- 
ciation work.  But  now  the  call  could  not  divert 
him  from  the  ministry  to  young  men,  which  had 
become  his  settled  life  choice. 

^.    Leader  of  the  General  Secretaries'  Conference. 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
were  certainly  slow  in  coming  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  need  of  employed  executive  officers, 
and  of  the  importance  of  defining  their  distinc- 
tive work,  and  of  training  well  selected  men  for 
it.  One  indication  of  this  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  while  the  societies  had  for  nearly  twenty 
years  been  meeting  for  helpful  conference  by 
their  representatives,  no  meeting  of  their 
employed  officers  for  this  needful  purpose 
occurred  until  the  year  1871. 

When  these  officers  began  to  meet  in  that  year 

17 


barely  a  dozen  were  present.  No  two  bore  the 
same  title.  The  name  of  general  secretary  was 
adopted  at  the  meeting,  and  slowly  came  into 
use  in  the  following  decade.  Of  the  dozen 
men  Mr.  McBurney  was  the  only  one  repre- 
senting the  fourfold  all-round  work  for  young 
men  carried  on  in  a  large,  well-appointed  build- 
ing specially  erected  for  the  purpose.  He  was 
also  the  only  one  who  was  a  guide  in  both 
international  and  state  organizations.  This 
gave  him  exceptional  qualification  to  be  in 
these  secretarial  conferences  both  a  guide  and 
teacher  of  his  associates.  He  performed  this 
useful  office  for  the  most  part  very  quietly  and 
unobtrusively,  working  chiefly  through  others 
and  putting  them  forward.  As  the  younger 
secretaries  began  to  be  in  the  majority  he  earned 
and  bore  among  them  the  title  of  Father  Mc- 
Burney. The  number  of  employed  officers  in  at- 
tendance steadily  increased  from  year  to  year : — 


In  1873  . 

.   54 

In  1879  . 

.  141 

In  1874  . 

.   77 

In  1880  . 

.  178 

In  1875  . 

■   93 

In  1881  . 

.  210 

In  1876  . 

.  108 

In  1882  . 

•  255 

In  1877  • 

.  114 

In  1883  . 

.  341 

In  1878  . 

•  114 

In  1884  . 

.  388 

For  more  than  ten  years  this  conference,  in 
connection  with  the  international  committee's 
secretarial  bureau  of  information  and  instruc- 
tion, constituted  the  best  agency  for  the  discov- 
ery and  training  of  association  secretaries.  The 
international  and  state  secretaries  cooperated  to 

18 


increase  its  efficiency.  Strong  local  secretaries 
were  developed,  coming  into  contact  with  what 
Mr.  McBurney  had  wrought  out  as  the  pioneer 
among  them.  Clever,  consecrated  men  were 
gradually  secured  in  cities  large  and  small. 
Each  brought  in  turn  his  contribution  to  secre- 
tarial efficiency.  In  this  annual  conference 
they  became  a  secretarial  brotherhood  in  a 
gracious,  helpful  relation  to  one  another.  At 
the  beginning,  when  they  numbered  barely  a 
dozen,  Mr.  McBurney  was  easily  first  in  expe- 
rience and  capacity  to  lead  and  teach ;  and  at 
the  end,  when  over  one  thousand  names  were 
on  the  roll,  he  was  as  easily  the  foremost  man  of 
the  brotherhood. 

In  1872  he  was  one  of  four  American  dele- 
gates who  attended,  in  Amsterdam,  Holland, 
the  triennial  meeting  of  the  World's  Conference 
of  the  associations.  He  attended  every  subse- 
quent meeting  save  that  of  1875 — namely,  those 
in  1878,  1881,  1884,  1888,  1891  and  1894.  The 
conference  of  1898  sent  to  his  bedside  in  the 
hospital  in  New  York  a  greeting  full  of  sympa- 
thy and  affection,  and  with  assurance  from 
delegates  representing  twenty-one  nations  that 
his  absence  was  lovingly  lamented. 

Thus  he  passed  the  first  decade  (1862-1871) 
of  his  secretaryship,  actively  and  successfully 
employed  in  a  rapidly  growing  work  by  and  for 
young  men  in  New  York  city,  accommodated 

19 


in  a  well  equipped  building.  He  was  also  a 
leader  in  the  American  international  and  state 
committees,  in  the  secretaries'  conference  and 
institute,  and  was  beginning  to  exert  an  influ- 
ence in  the  counsels  of  the  World's  Conference. 

IV.       SECOND    PERIOD    OF    HIS    SECRETARIAL    LIFE 
AND    WORK,    1872-1898. 

The  following  twenty-six  years  of  incessant 
but  never  wearying  service  witnessed  also  an 
equally  incessant  enlargement  of  all  his  varied 
activity.  In  the  New  York  association  the 
work  was  widened  in  two  directions — (1)  by 
the  organization  of  branches  and  the  erection 
of  branch  buildings  in  different  parts  of  the 
city;  (2)  by  the  organization  of  branches  com- 
posed of  different  classes  of  young  men, 
namely,  students,  railroad  men  and  German 
speaking  and  French  speaking  young  men. 
Each  call  for  enlargement  had  an  origin  and 
history  more  or  less  peculiar  to  itself.  To  each 
call  and  its  advocate  Mr.  McBurney  gave  hos- 
pitable attention.  In  responding  to  each  he 
brought  valuable  contribution  of  counsel  and 
suggestion.  He  domesticated  each  branch  in 
the  plan  and  scope  of  the  association  work. 

In  the  midst  of  this  period,  at  a  reception 
given  to  Mr.  McBurney  in  1887,  on  his  fiftieth 
birthday,  Rev.  Dr.  Howard  Crosby  said:  **It 
is  an  unalloyed  joy  to  express  the  deep  feeling 
of  so  many  hearts  in  speaking  to  our  beloved 


friend  McBurney.  I  am  compelled  to  put  some 
control  over  my  feelings  lest  my  language  might 
be  deemed  superlative.  I  have  watched  our 
friend  all  these  years  of  a  quarter  of  a  century 
during  which  he  has  been  the  official  repre- 
sentative of  this  magnificent  institution,  the 
very  centre  of  its  influence,  one  of  the  main- 
springs of  its  life.  He  has  identified  himself 
with  the  cause  of  the  young  man  in  its  highest 
expression  with  a  sympathy  and  a  wisdom 
which  have  been  both  untiring  and  unexcelled. 
He  has  remained  himself  a  young  man  all  these 
years.  I  deeply  feel  that  our  city  and  our 
whole  land  are  indebted  to  our  dear  brother  for 
these  wonderful  twenty- five  years.  Always  in 
his  place,  always  cheerful,  always  attending  to 
duty  seven  days  of  every  week,  and  often  fifty- 
two  weeks  in  every  year;  never  weary  of  the 
applications  pressed  incessantly  upon  him, 
always  multiplying  friends — these  have  been 
his  characteristics.  I  believe  that  such  a  life  is 
the  most  useful  of  all  lives — an  example  most 
precious  to  our  young  men.  I  know  of  no  pas- 
tor of  any  church  in  this  city  whose  ministry 
has  been  so  useful  and  extended.  What  part  of 
the  country  does  not  know  him?  And  what  part 
of  the  country  does  not  know  him  through  the 
goodly  influence  he  has  exerted  ?  He  is  there- 
fore a  national  man,  quiet  in  his  personal  life 
and  yet  felt  throughout  the  whole  country,  our 
young  men  everywhere  recognizing  him  as  a 
guide  and  an  example." 


Mr.  Elbert  B.  Monroe,  then  president  of  the 
association,  tendered  congratulations,  saying: 
*  *  We  do  not  come  here  with  any  idea  that  Mr. 
McBurney  is  old.  We  believe  in  him  as  a 
young  man,  with  the  young  man's  sympathy 
added  to  the  calm  judgment  which  can  do 
young  men  good.  That  he  has  been  saved  to 
us  all  for  this  time  we  thank  God,  and  pray 
that  for  many  years  to  come  he  may  be  saved 
to  us." 

Mr.  William  E.  Dodge,  in  a  happy  brief 
address,  presented  Mr.  McBumey  with  a  hand- 
some velvet  bag  of  gold  eagles  for  the  purchase 
of  books  for  his  library,  especially  for  its  bibli- 
cal department — an  eagle  for  each  of  the  fifty 
years  that  were  past  and  thirty-five  more  for 
the  additional  years  of  still  more  useful  service 
to  which  his  friends  looked  forward.  Accom- 
panying the  gift  was  an  envelope  containing 
"  'pinions  from  some  eagles,"  being  anonymous 
extracts  from  letters  which  had  come  from 
friends  who  had  taken  part  in  the  bestowal  of 
this  gift. 

/.     The  Metropolitan  Organization  formed. 

In  this  year  1887,  the  multiplication  of  the 
branches  of  the  association  called  for  some  ad- 
ministrative change.  The  board  of  directors  and 
the  general  secretary  had  been  responsible  up  to 
this  time  to  administer  every  detail  of  the  work 
in  the  Twenty-third  street  building,  and  also 
to  supervise  the   various  branches  throughout 


the  city.  The  time  had  certainly  come  to  re- 
lease the  board  and  its  secretary  from  special 
supervision  of  the  central  building.  After  care- 
ful thought  and  study,  at  the  suggestion  and 
under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Elbert  B.  Monroe, 
the  present  metropolitan  organization  was 
formed.  Mr.  McBumey  was  thus  relieved  from 
the  double  service  he  had  been  rendering,  as 
general  secretary  of  the  whole  work  in  the 
city,  and  as  secretary  at  the  central  building. 
He  now  became  metropolitan  secretary,  hold- 
ing an  equal  relation  to  every  branch,  over  the 
organization  and  growth  of  each  of  which  he 
had  presided.  And  he  was  free  during  the  last 
ten  crowning  years  of  his  service  to  devote 
himself  to  perfecting  and  unifying  the  entire 
work. 

2.     Celebration  of  his  fifty-third  Birthday. 

In  the  year  1890,  on  his  fifty-third  birthday 
(March  thirty-first),  Mr.  McBumey  persuaded 
himself  for  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life  to 
give  a  dinner  to  a  large  company  of  friends. 
He  selected  as  his  birthday  guests  the  hundred 
employees  of  the  New  York  City  association, 
and  as  he  issued  the  invitations  was  vividly 
reminded  of  the  period,  nearly  forty  years  before, 
when  he  was  the  only  employee  of  the  associa- 
tion, and  was  receiving  as  small  compensation 
as  any  one  then  on  the  long  roll  of  this  ramified 
metropoHtan  organization.  He  invited  also  the 
president  and  a  few  of  the  officers  and  directors 

23 


of  the  association  and  its  branches.  Fifty-eight 
employees  were  able  to  respond  favorably,  and 
gathered  about  his  table  at  Clark's  restaurant 
on  Twenty-third  street.  Every  class  was  repre- 
sented, including  messenger  boys,  cleaners, 
engineers,  janitors,  physical  directors,  librarians, 
secretaries,  and  assistants  of  all  kinds. 

Interesting  reminiscences  were  given  by  vari- 
ous speakers,  and  the  responsibilities  resting 
upon  everyone  employed  in  the  work  were  faith- 
fully presented.  Addresses  were  made  by 
Messrs.  Cleveland  H.  Dodge,  president;  Elbert 
B.  Monroe,  ex-president;  Cephas  Brainerd, 
senior  member  of  the  bo(  rd  of  directors ;  Wil- 
liam E.  Dodge,  chairman  of  the  board  of 
trustees;  also  by  chairmen  of  four  of  the 
branches,  by  the  branch  secretary,  librarian, 
and  physical  director  longest  in  service;  by 
William  S.  Brazier,  for  twenty-two  years  jani- 
tor of  the  Twenty-third  street  building,  and  by 
the  engineer  of  the  same  building. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether  host  or 
guests  most  enjoyed  this  delightful  festivity,  so 
full  of  that  affectionate  hospitality  and  good 
fellowship  which  pervaded  the  life  of  the  host 
in  all  his  intercourse  both  with  his  guests  and 
with  the  multitude  of  young  men  he  was  con- 
stantly entertaining. 

J.    A  Commemoration  and  a  Retrospect  in  i8gy. 

The  following  table  gives  a  summary  view  of 
this  association  growth  in  New  York  city,  or, 

24 


as  it  is  now  called,  the  borough  of  Manhattan. 
It  was  prepared  early  in  1897,  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  Mr.  McBurney's  sixtieth  birthday.  At 
the  dinner  given  him  on  this  occasion  Mr.  Wil- 
liam E.  Dodge  presided.  Appropriate  addresses 
were  made  by  the  chairman,  Reverend  Dr. 
Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  and  Messrs.  Cephas 
Brainerd,  Elihu  Root,  and  Richard  C.  Morse; 
and  a  portrait  of  Mr.  McBumey,  for  which  he 
had  consented  to  sit  at  the  request  of  a  few 
friends,  was  presented  to  the  association. 


1866 — April  2d,  The  Western  Branch  opened.  1872 — 
The  Western  becomes  the  Bowery  Branch  at 
134  Bowery.  1888 — The  present  building  pur- 
chased. 

1868 — February,  Harlem  Branch  opened.  1888 — Present 
building  completed. 

1869 — December  23d,  Twenty- third  street  building  com- 
pleted and  opened. 

1872— Yorkville,  East  86th  Street,  Branch  opened.  1885 
— Lot  and  property  secured.  1 896 — Building  in 
course  of  erection. 

1875 — Railroad  Branch  opened  in  Grand  Central  Depot. 

1879 — Railroad  Rooms  opened  at  West  Thirtieth 
street  Depot. 

1886 — At  Weehawken  and  New  Durham. 

1887 — In  Round  House,  West  72d  Street. 

1887 — Railroad    building,    361    Madison    Avenue, 
opened. 

1893 — Railroad  building  doubled  in  size. 

1891 — Mott  Haven  rooms  opened. 
1 88 1 — German  Branch  organized. 

1884 — Building  secured. 

25 


i889 — Building  doubled  by  purchase  of  adjoining 

house. 
1896 — March,  Building  altered  and  reopened. 
1885 — Young  Men's   Institute  building    completed  and 

opened. 
1887— Present  Metropolitan  Organization  effected. 
1888 — Athletic  Grounds  and  Boat  House  leased. 
1889 — French  Branch  opened. 

Student  work  organized  as  "The  Student  Move- 
ment."    1894 — Building,  129  Lexington  Avenue, 
purchased. 
1 89 1 — Washington  Heights  Branch  opened. 

1892 — Washington  Heights  building  secured. 
1896 — West  Side  bi  llding  completed  and  opened. 

When  Mr.  McBumey  became  its  employed  execu- 
tive officer  in  1862,  the  Association  had  150  mem- 
bers, was  occupying  two  small  rented  rooms,  and 
expending  in  its  work  annually  $1,700.  Now 
with  7,309  members  it  carries  on  its  work  at  fif- 
teen points,  owns  nine  buildings  valued  at  $2,- 
000,000,  and  expends  annually  in  its  diversified 
work  $175,000.  It  employs  forty-one  secretaries 
and  assistants. 

^.    Continued  relation  to  International  and  State 
Organisations. 

While  thus  faithfully  performing  his  New- 
York  secretarial  work  during  these  twenty- six 
years  (1872-1898)  he  continued  his  active,  influ- 
ential relation  to  the  international  convention 
and  its  committee,  as  this  agency  also  was 
reaching  out  after  various  classes  of  young  men. 

Though  not  himself  a  college  graduate,  no 
member  of  the  committee  was  more  sympa- 
thetic with  the  student  work  and  its   growth 

26 


throughout  the  country  and  the  world.  In  the 
planting  and  growth  of  the  student  branch  in 
his  own  city  field  he  took  the  most  vigilant 
interest,  providing  out  of  his  own  salary  for 
some  years  the  salary  of  the  first  student 
secretary  of  the  New  York  association.  In 
working  out  to  a  successful  solution  that  most 
difficult  problem  of  the  student  work,  namely, 
its  effective  organization  in  the  professional  and 
higher  schools  of  our  great  cities,  what  he 
accomplished  in  New  York  was  an  invaluable 
help  to  the  association  student  brotherhood  in 
other  large  cities  of  the  continent. 

Equally,  as  a  member  of  the  international 
committee,  he  promoted  the  work  among  rail- 
road, colored,  and  other  classes  of  young  men. 
At  the  international  conventions,  where  this 
ever- widening  work  was  reported  and  its  exten- 
sion authorized,  he  continued  an  influential 
leader  in  counsel  and  action.  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  program  of  each  convention  his 
suggestions  of  both  topics  and  speakers,  grow- 
ing out  of  his  touch  with  all  parts  of  the  work 
in  their  highest  efficiency,  deserved  and  obtained 
prevailing  influence. 

When  from  missionaries  on  the  foreign  field 
urgent  call  came  to  the  committee  for  associa- 
tion secretarial  workers  to  establish  the  organi- 
zation at  strategic  points  on  that  wide  field,  he 
warmly  advocated  a  favorable  response,  and 
served  as  first  chairman  of  the  sub-committee 
on  this  foreign  work.     The  first  secretary  .who 

27 


went  to  that  field  had  received  his  training  as 
an  assistant  of  Mr.  McBurney  in  the  office  of 
the  New  York  association. 

5.     Growing  interest  in  the  Secretaryship  and  in 
training  for  it. 

In  the  secretaries'  conference  and  its  discus- 
sions he  also  continued  during  this  period  his 
helpful  leadership.  He  discerned  clearly  when 
the  time  was  ripe  for  secretarial  training  be- 
yond what  could  be  furnished  by  this  con- 
ference and  by  the  secretarial  bureau  of  the 
international  committee,  useful  and  necessary 
as  both  these  agencies  must  ever  continue  to 
be.  In  the  founding  and  building  up  of  the 
secretarial  training  school  at  Springfield,  Mass. , 
he  exerted  a  parental  influence  as  counselor  of 
its  founder  and  first  president,  and,  later,  of  his 
successors.  As  a  trustee  from  the  beginning, 
he  was  indispensable  to  the  wise  administration 
of  the  institution. 

During  his  last  sickness,  while  determining 
the  provisions  of  his  will,  he  expressed  the 
desire  to  give  one-fourth  of  his  small  estate  to 
that  department  of  association  work  which  had 
most  need  of  the  gift.  It  is  a  striking  indica- 
tion of  his  unselfish  spirit,  that  though  the  New 
York  association,  its  interests  and  work,  had 
always  the  first  place  in  his  enthusiasm  and 
affection,  he  concluded  after  careful  delibera- 
tion that  secretarial  training  had  most  need  of 
his  preference  in  the  form  of  a  bequest ;  and  the 
28 


fourth  of  his  estate  was  willed  to  the  school  at 
Springfield. 

6.    Literary  and  other  Attainments. 

His  ever-growing  literary  taste  and  attain- 
ment were  shown  in  the  gradual  increase  of  his 
well-selected  library.  His  collection  of  hymns 
— the  department  of  poetry  in  which  he  took 
the  greatest  interest — was  particularly  full  and 
interesting.  The  annual  reports  of  the  associa- 
tion, which  he  began  to  prepare  in  1872,  were 
the  fruit  of  careful  study.  One  of  the  leaders 
of  the  religious  press,  Dr.  Edward  Prime,  said 
that  they  ranked  among  the  very  best  presented 
by  any  of  the  religious  societies;  and  he  added, 
"  No  matter  how  excellent  the  speaking  at  the 
anniversary  may  be,  I  always  find  myself  most 
interested  in  Mr.  McBurney's  report."  As 
editor  of  the  New  York  Association  Bulletin 
and  Notes  he  showed  the  same  literary  capacity. 
He  was  a  careful,  painstaking  collector  of  asso- 
ciation reports  and  literature,  and  for  years  his 
collection  was  the  largest  and  most  complete  in 
existence.  In  these  and  other  phases  of  his 
intellectual  life  he  richly  merited  the  honorary 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts  conferred  upon  him 
by  Hamilton  College. 

His  love  of  the  Bible  and  his  passion  for  its 
study  grew  steadily.  The  time  set  apart  each 
week  for  preparation  of  the  Bible  lesson  was 
more  and  more  sacredly  observed.  No  other 
engagements  were  allowed  to  interfere  with  it. 

29 


This  study  of  the  Bible  was  the  fundamental 
thing  in  his  intellectual  growth  and  literary  cul- 
ture. It  determined  the  choice  of  the  valuable 
biblical  works  which  formed  an  important 
part  of  his  library.  It  leavened  his  prayer  life 
and  his  personal  work  in  leading  men  to  faith 
in  Christ.  As  a  teacher  of  the  Bible  to  young 
men,  his  class  became  one  of  the  strong  factors 
in  the  religious  work  of  the  association.  Young 
men  dated  from  it  their  beginning  and  their 
growth  in  the  Christian  life.  It  became  an 
object  lesson  to  his  fellow  secretaries,  from 
which  they  drew  suggestion  and  inspiration. 

His  longest  absence  from  his  desk  (February- 
June,  1892)  was  spent  in  a  tour  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Its  principal  feature  was  a  month's 
trip  through  Palestine,  which  he  keenly  appre- 
ciated and  enjoyed.  He  ever  after  counted  it 
of  great  value  to  him  as  a  reader  and  student 
of  the  Bible,  and  it  gave  a  new  interest  to  his 
teaching.  His  companions  on  the  trip  will 
always  remember  the  zest  and  eagerness  he  was 
ever  manifesting  in  all  that  he  saw.  His  quick 
eye  caught,  and  his  memory  kept  count  of  every 
new  variety  of  flower,  while  the  scenes  of  sacred 
story,  and  the  truths  and  teachings  of  the  book 
he  delighted  to  study,  were  indelibly  impressed 
upon  his  mind. 

7.     Personal  Traits. 

He  was  an  ardent  lover  of  sport  in  the  woods, 
30 


and  was  an  expert  fisherman.  The  Catskill 
mountain  region,  and  later  that  of  the  Adiron- 
dacks,  was  the  goal  of  his  plans  for  the  few 
brief  vacations  he  allowed  himself.  His  library 
bears  witness  to  his  taste  in  this  direction. 
Side  by  side  with  the  large  and  well-selected 
alcove  of  hymns  is  to  be  found  a  remarkable 
collection  of  the  various  editions  of  Izaak 
Walton,  comprising  a  specimen  from  at  least 
seventy  editions  of  that  ''Pilgrim's  Progress" 
of  the  fisherman.  He  belonged  to  a  group  of 
friends,  many  of  them  prominent  in  both  clergy 
and  laity,  who  shared  with  him  this  fondness 
for  life  and  sport  in  the  woods.  One  of  the  few 
recreations  he  allowed  himself  was  an  occasional 
meeting  with  them.  But  as  a  rule  he  declined 
the  many  invitations  he  received  to  join  in 
social  life  apart  from  the  association.  In  one 
instance  the  invitation  came  from  one  of  the 
leading  social  clubs  of  the  city.  But  his  life 
was  so  heartily  surrendered  to  his  one  work 
day  and  night  that  he  found  no  room  in  it  for 
favorable  reply  to  this  and  to  a  multitude  of  other 
calls  to  social  recreation. 

The  cheerfulness  of  his  disposition  and  his 
keen  enjoyment  of  the  humorous  made  him 
very  attractive  to  young  men.  He  was  always 
good  company,  and  contributed  his  share  of 
lively  talk,  quick  repartee,  apt  anecdote  and 
humorous  incidents.  He  was  fond  of  bric-a- 
brac  and  curios,  and  had  a  keen  eye  for  the 
antique  in  furniture  and  architecture.     He  was 

31 


a  good  critic  of  works  of  art.  His  taste  in  all 
these  lines  was  excellent,  and  his  tower  room 
and  the  association  buildings  in  the  erection 
and  equipment  of  which  he  was  most  con- 
cerned give  evidence  of  his  capacity  in  these 
directions. 

8.    At  work  outside  the  Association  Brotherhood. 

While  giving  himself  chiefly  to  work  for  young 
men,  Mr.  McBurney  yielded  to  some  of  many 
solicitations  to  engage  in  other  departments  of 
Christian  effort.  As  became  a  consistent  gen- 
eral secretary,  he  was  an  active  member  of  the 
church  of  his  choice  during  his  entire  residence 
of  forty  years  in  New  York,  and  served  on  its 
board  of  trustees  and  board  of  stewards.  Begin- 
ning in  1867,  he  was  one  of  the  leading  and 
most  active  members  of  the  executive  commit- 
tee of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 

He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New  York 
Christian  Home  for  Intemperate  Men,  and  a 
member  of  its  board  of  directors  from  1877  to 
1887;  and  his  warm  interest  in  its  work  con- 
tinued throughout  his  life.  Probably  no  other 
friend  of  the  institution  during  the  same  period 
directed  so  many  unfortunate  men  to  its  care. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  managing  boards 
of  the  American  Tract  Society,  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association,  the  Federation 
of  Churches  and  Christian  Workers  in  New 
York  City,  the  Clerical  Mutual  Association,  the 
New    York    Deaconess    Home    and    Training 

32 


School  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and 
the  Manhattan  Working  Girls'  Club. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Civil  Service  Re- 
form Association,  and  rendered  special  service 
to  the  Charity  Organization  Society  and  the 
New  York  Sunday- School  Association. 

As  has  just  been  shown,  he  was  widely  valued 
and  sought  as  a  counselor  by  laymen  and  min- 
isters engaged  in  Christian  and  philanthropic 
enterprises,  and  often  went  beyond  his  physical 
strength  in  making  favorable  response.  He 
was  conservative  in  discerning  obstacles  and 
warning  of  their  presence,  but  also  progressive 
in  estimating  with  good  judgment  the  likeli- 
hood of  success  in  new  undertakings.  He  was 
suggestive  to  those  seeking  counsel,  and  par- 
ticularly happy  in  naming  good  candidates  for 
the  manning  and  leadership  of  worthy  enter- 
prises. 

He  was  an  enthusiastic  American  citizen. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  he  was  exceed- 
ingly eager  to  enlist  as  a  soldier,  but  a  physical 
disability  prevented  his  acceptance  by  the  mili- 
tary authorities.  This  physical  trouble  was  a 
tax  upon  his  strength  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
Only  his  indomitable  spirit  prevented  it  from 
interfering  with  his  incessant  labors. 

He  also  showed  his  good  citizenship  by  serv- 
ing faithfully  as  a  juryman,  and  in  his  later 
years  was  greatly  valued  as  a  member  of  the 
grand  jury  of  the  city. 

33 


p.     His  Life  Purpose. 

In  reviewing  the  wide  and  varied  range  of  his 
activities,  the  positions  of  trust  he  held,  and  his 
relationships  to  a  world-wide  work  for  young 
men,  in  which  his  influence  was  steadily  and 
increasingly  felt,  it  seems  clear  that  he  was  a 
man  of  extraordinary  ability.  He  possessed 
the  capacity,  talent,  and  arts  of  a  statesman. 
He  employed  every  faculty  and  talent  most 
industriously.  Like  all  men  who  discover  in 
themselves  superior  capacity  he  was  tempted  to 
make  selfish  use  of  it.  Because  he  successfully 
resisted  and  overcame  the  temptation,  both  his 
influence  and  usefulness  in  the  Christian  brother- 
5,  hood  to  which  he  belonged  steadily  increased. 
For  he  continued  to  the  end  to  give  supreme 
attention  to  the  unselfish  labor  of  love  which 
introduced  him  to  his  life  work — the  blessed 
work  of  leading  young  men,  one  by  one,  to 
faith  and  life  in  Jesus  Christ.  This  he  believed 
should  be  the  controlling  purpose  and  activity 
of  the  general  secretary,  and  of  the  Christian 
believer.  He  showed  this  faith  by  his  works. 
It  was  because  he  thus  impersonated  faithfully 
the  loving.  Christlike,  unselfish  motive  of  the 
association  that  he  commanded  increasingly 
confidence  and  cooperation  in  the  administration 
of  this  work  in  New  York  and  elsewhere. 

He  highly  appreciated  necessary  machinery 
and  appliances.  But  he  estimated  these  at  their 
right   value,  and  never  gave  them  first  place. 

34 


His  heart  and  hand  were  not  enhsted  and  busy 
chiefly  in  organizing  workers  and  conventions, 
appointing  committees,  constructing  buildings 
and  soliciting  money.  His  best  endeavor  was 
given  to  the  hand  to  hand,  face  to  face  work, 
wrought  out  only  in  personal  intercourse, 
prayer,  Bible  study  and  teaching,  and  in  all 
those  quiet  spiritual  character-building  activities 
which  grow  out  of  a  living  faith  in  Christ,  as 
saviour  unto  the  uttermost  and  friend  beyond 
all  others — activities  which  constitute  the  heart 
and  life  blood  of  the  association  work.  His  per- 
sonal influence  thus  exerted  these  many  years 
upon  the  lives  of  young  men,  one  by  one, 
endeared  him  to  a  great  multitude  of  them. 
Some  of  these  are  now  honored  and  useful  in 
business,  professional,  pohtical,  and  church  life. 
Many  more  in  humbler  station  are  making  their 
influence  felt  for  good,  and  all  alike  value  him 
as  a  friend  associated  with  what  is  best  in  their 
character,  their  lives,  and  their  future. 

He  believed  that  this  discernment  of  the  high- 
est welfare  of  men,  and  the  loving  desire  to  pro- 
mote it,  came  to  him  as  a  gift  of  grace  from 
Jesus  Christ,  and  was  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  his  heart.  It  had  its  origin,  as  far  as 
he  knew,  in  a  life  of  prayer  and  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  the  Word  of  God  to  him.  He 
was  an  eminently  devout  man.  Many  who 
attended  the  meetings  for  prayer  at  the  asso- 
ciation rooms,  where  Mr.  McBumey  often  took 
part,  made  special  mention  of  his  prayers,  as 


35 


full  of  spiritual  help  and  comfort.  The  multi- 
tude of  young  men  and  of  his  fellow  secretaries, 
to  whom  he  ministered  so  helpfully,  unite  in 
bearing  the  same  testimony. 

JO.      The  Last   Year. 

In  September,  1897,  Mr.  McBurney  left  his 
desk  in  the  general  office  of  the  board  of 
directors  to  take  temporary  charge  of  the 
Twenty -third  street  branch  until  a  secre- 
tary could  be  found  for  that  important  post. 
With  characteristic  energy  he  threw  himself 
into  the  work,  and  went  so  far  beyond  the  limit 
of  his  strength  that  in  January,  for  the  first 
time  in  all  the  years  of  his  connection  with  the 
association,  he  could  not  prepare  for  and 
attend  the  anniversary  meeting.  He  with- 
drew with  a  friend  to  Atlantic  City  for  rest  and 
recuperation.  Returning  still  an  invalid,  he 
went  for  treatment  on  February  fifteenth  to  the 
Presbyterian  Hospital.  He  continued  there  for 
five  months,  submitting  in  April  to  a  somewhat 
severe  surgical  operation.  Early  in  August  he 
went  to  the  Adirondacks,  and  thence  on  Sep- 
tember twenty-first  to  Clifton  Springs.  But 
under  the  continued  complications  of  his  disease 
(multiple  sarcoma),  and  in  spite  of  all  that  the 
best  medical  skill  could  prescribe,  he  steadily 
grew  feebler.  It  was  graciously  ordered  that 
his  last  hours  were  free  from  pain.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  his  departure,  with  cheerful 
consciousness  that  the  end  was  near,  he  said  to 
36 


one  of  his  physicians,  "■  Almost  home  !"  and  at 
half -past  three  on  the  afternoon  of  December 
twenty-seventh  he  entered  quietly  and  pain- 
lessly the  home  of  eternal  rest  and  peace  pre- 
pared for  him  by  the  love  of  his  Saviour. 

V.       FUNERAL    SERVICE,    THURSDAY,    DECEMBER 
29,    1898. 

Following  a  wish  often  expressed  by  Mr. 
McBumey,  the  funeral  service  was  held  in  Asso- 
ciation Hall,  on  the  corner  of  Twenty-third 
street  and  Fourth  avenue,  and  was  of  the  sim- 
plest character.  His  pastor,  Reverend  George 
P.  Eckman,  Ph.  D.,  of  St.  Paul's  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  presided.  Very  appropriate 
portions  of  Scripture  were  read  by  President  M. 
Woolsey  Stryker,  D.  D.,  of  Hamilton  College. 

Right  Reverend  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.  D.,  LL. 
D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church 
in  the  diocese  of  New  York,  made  the  following 
address : — 

It  is  in  such  a  presence  as  this  that  we  read- 
just our  standards  of  values.  There  is  much  in 
all  our  modem  life,  and  especially  in  the  life  of 
cities,  to  confuse  them.  Externalisms — the 
proportions  and  the  triumphs  of  the  visible — 
create  even  in  more  serious  minds  an  undue 
estimate  of  their  value  and  meaning;  and  the 
type  of  man  whose  achievements  are  expressed 
by  bulk  and  bigness,  whether  of  structures, 
combinations  or  accumulations,  is  the  type  to 
which  there  is  apt  to  be  paid  the  largest  and  the 
loudest  homage. 

37 


It  is  only  when  one  of  another  type — one  to 
whom  externalisms  have  been  all  along  consis- 
tently indifferent,  who  has  owned  little,  built 
little,  accuniulated  little,  if,  in  the  material 
sense,  anything  at  all — it  is  only  when  such  an 
one  is  taken  from  his  place  and  work  in  life,  and 
we  suddenly  realize  how  much  is  gone  out  of 
the  world  in  his  departure,  that  we  readjust  our 
point  of  view.  There  have  been  rich  men, 
potential  men  in  their  influences  upon  the  street 
or  the  market — men  whose  presence  made 
weaker  men  tremble  for  the  interests  which 
their  cleverness  and  their  combinations  daily 
threatened — who  have  died  and  vanished  with- 
out a  sign  of  grief  or  loss  from  the  great  world 
that  they  seemed  to  have  so  mightily  influenced, 
and  often  with  only  a  sigh  of  relief  that  clever- 
ness, adroitness,  powers  of  forecast  and  combi- 
nation, without  any  fine  scruple  to  restrain 
them,  have  been  taken  out  of  this  world. 

What  a  different  sentiment  is  that  which 
gathers  this  various  and  widely  representative 
assemblage  to-day !  As  I  look  down  into  your 
faces,  the  gray  heads  dotting  soberly  the  larger 
assemblage  of  younger  heads  and  faces,  the 
spectacle  is  profoundly  significant.  Some  of 
you  were  the  contemporaries  of  McBurney. 
Some  of  you  have  known  him  and  worked  with 
him  during  all  the  years  of  his  connection  with 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  In  all 
sorts  of  spiritual  weather,  in  dark  days  as  well 
as  bright,  in  grave  crises  as  well  as  in  prosper- 
ous and  peaceful  seasons,  you  have  wrought 
with  him,  prayed  with  him,  known  him  through 
and  through.  And  not  only  are  you  in  no 
doubt  about  him  to-day — not  only  have  you 
never  been  in  any  doubt  about  him — but,  more 
than  this,  as  you  stand  about  his  coffin,  as  little 

38 


are  you  in  any  doubt  about  that  supreme  fact 
for  which  so  steadfastly  and  consistently  he 
stood — the  fact  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  spiritual 
sovereignty,  and  the  incomparable  preciousness 
of  fellowship  with  him,  and  service  for  him. 
The  air  clears,  the  dust  of  human  strifes  and 
rivalries  lifts  and  rolls  away.  The  things  seen 
and  temporal  shrink  to  their  true  and  insignifi- 
cant proportions;  and  in  the  presence  of  this 
noble  manhood,  translated  now  to  worthier 
spheres  and,  as  we  rejoice  to  believe,  to  still 
larger  opportunities,  we  measure  by  what  our 
friend  was  and  did  the  world  and  all  that  is  in  it 
at  their  real  value. 

I  am  not  here  to  eulogize  him.  With  your 
knowledge  of  him  and  his  work,  that  would  be 
superfluous,  if  not  impertinent.  He  did  not 
need  interpreting.  He  was  utterly  and  abso- 
lutely transparent,  and  the  chief  charm  of  his 
character,  next  to  its  singular  and  beautiful 
modesty,  was  its  unreserved,  though  always 
kindly  directness  and  candor.  But,  though  he 
himself  least  of  all  could  wish  me  to  spend  these 
moments  in  personal  praise,  it  is  our  privilege — 
yours  and  mine — to  recall  him  as  he  was,  and 
to  give  thanks  for  qualities  so  fine  and  high, 
and,  best  of  all,  so  absolutely  consecrated. 

In  their  development  it  is  impossible  not  to 
recognize  those  converging  forces  which  are  a 
part  of  God's  providential  ordering  in  making 
men,  and  in  fitting  them  for  their  work.  Once, 
in  his  company,  it  came  out  incidentally  that 
he  was  a  Methodist,  and  I  said:  "McBumey,  I 
have  always  credited  you  with  being  a  Scotch 
Presbyterian.  Surely  *thy  speech  bewrayeth 
thee.*  Thou  art  a  Calvinist  and  a  Scotchman." 
"No,"  he  answered  smilingly,  "I  am  neither. 
I  am  Irish  by  race,  and  by  fellowship  a  Metho- 

39 


dist."  It  let  in  a  flood  of  light  upon  character- 
istics in  him,  which  are  rarely  combined,  and 
still  more  rarely  in  such  happy  proportions.  A 
mutual  friend  told  me  yesterday  that  Dr.  Hodge 
of  Princeton  once  looked  in  upon  him  as  he  was 
teaching  a  Bible  class,  and,  after  listening  a  few 
moments,  said,  as  he  came  away,  "  McBurney 
is  a  Calvinist,  though  he  don't  know  it."  He 
had  been  speaking  of  God's  great  purpose  for 
man — a  purpose  not  to  be  baffled  or  defeated  by 
man's  waywardness  or  perverseness,  however 
extreme.  In  that  sense  I  hope  we  are  all  Cal- 
vinists,  holding  fast,  amid  human  failures,  to 
the  divine  in  man,  which  shall  at  last  triumph 
over  all  sin  and  wrong.  And  we  can  imagine 
McBurney  talking  to  a  company  of  young  men, 
and  pleading  with  them  to  own  their  nobler 
destiny,  and  not  to  fight  against  the  constrain- 
ing love  of  Jesus  Christ.  For,  after  all,  that 
was  the  dominant  spring  with  him,  as  was 
natural  in  the  fellowship  to  which  he  belonged. 
I  shall  not  misjudge  them,  I  think,  if  I  say  that 
the  dominant  note  in  the  theology  of  our  Metho- 
dist brethren  is  a  note  of  hope.  And  this  was 
a  preeminent  note  in  the  work  and  ministry  of 
our  brother  departed. 

I  call  it  a  ministry,  and  I  do  so  advisedly,  for 
no  theory  of  the  ministry  can  leave  out  of 
account  the  apostle's  definition:  "As  every 
man  hath  received  the  gift,  even  so  minister 
the  same  one  to  another,  as  good  stewards  of 
the  manifold  grace  of  God."  No  one  who  knew 
him  can  doubt  that  he  had  received  the  gift — 
the  highest,  and  best — of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and 
dear  Dr.  Howard  Crosby,  when  McBurney  was 
presented  on  his  fiftieth  birthday  with  a  purse 
of  gold  pieces,  only  spoke  the  truth  when  he 
said,  *  *  I  know  of  no  pastor  of  any  church  in  this 

40 


city,  whose  ministry  has  been  so  useful  and 
extended  as  the  ministry  of  McBurney."  How 
wide-reaching  it  was,  how  gentle,  how  coura- 
geous, how  enduring  in  its  influence !  One  stops 
to  think  of  all  the  young  men  that  have  passed 
under  his  hand,  and  have  been  moved  and  enno- 
bled by  his  touch.  Where  are  they  to-day  ? 
Scattered  far  and  wide,  all  round  the  world,  in 
various  callings  and  communities,  but  still  carry- 
ing with  them,  I  venture  to  think,  the  impress  of 
that  affectionate  interest,  and  wise  counsel,  and 
unwearied  watchfulness,  which  once  they  expe- 
rienced at  his  hands.  What  words  of  courage 
he  has  spoken!  What  lessons  of  loyalty,  and 
purity,  and  fidelity  to  their  divine  Master  he 
has  urged  upon  disheartened,  and  lonely,  and 
tempted  ones !  What  new  faith  in  themselves 
and  in  God  he  has  awakened  in  them,  and  what 
hosts  of  young  men  and  of  older  men  there  are 
to-day,  who  have  come  to  believe  in  the  father- 
hood of  God,  because,  first  of  all,  they  learned 
to  believe  in  the  brotherhood  of  Robert  McBur- 
ney! 

And  now  we  are  to  bear  him  to  his  rest. 
Fitly  above  his  breast  there  lies  yonder  wreath 
of  orchids,  with  their  chastened  hues,  so  like  his 
simple  and  modest  manhood;  and  still  more 
fitly  rest  there  those  pure  white  roses,  like  his 
own  unstained  and  blameless  self.  True  knight 
of  God,  well  done !  Thou  goest — who  of  us  can 
doubt  it? — to  larger  tasks  even  as  to  nobler 
fellowships.  Be  ours  to  follow  thee,  as  thou 
hast  followed  Christ ! 

The  closing  prayer  was  offered  by  Bishop 
Potter. 

The  interment  took  place  later  in  the  burial 
plot  owned  by  the  association  in  Woodlawn  cem- 

41 


etery,  to  which  the  name  of  "Place  of  Rest" 
had  been  given  by  Mr.  McBumey,  through 
whose  thoughtful  efforts  and  solicitation  it  was 
procured.  Already  it  had  proved  a  place  of 
burial  for  a  number  of  young  men,  strangers  in 
the  city,  to  whom  the  association  had  ministered 
during  their  last  sickness. 

VI.       MEMORIAL    SERVICE,    SUNDAY,    JANUARY 

15,  1899. 

A  few  weeks  before  his  death  Mr.  McBurney 
recorded  in  his  will  the  following  wish : — 

*  *  If  a  service  should  be  held  at  the  time  of  my  funeral 
in  Association  Hall,  it  is  my  wish  that  William  E.  Dodge 
preside,  and  that  Richard  C.  Morse,  and  William  W. 
Hoppin,  and  Cephas  Brainerd  be  invited  to  speak  to 
young  men  regarding  fidelity  to  the  association  and 
personal  work  for  leading  men  to  the  Saviour,  and  I  wdsh 
to  have  congregational  singing  only." 

In  response  to  the  very  general  and  urgent 
desire  of  his  friends  and  associates  such  a  ser- 
vice was  held  on  Sunday  afternoon,  January 
fifteenth.  According  to  the  wish  of  Mr.  McBur- 
ney, as  above  expressed,  Mr.  William  E.  Dodge 
consented  to  preside.  A  large  audience  assem- 
bled, representative  of  all  classes  in  the  com- 
munity, and  including  many  prominent  citizens 
of  New  York  and  other  cities.  Prayer  was 
offered  by  Reverend  George  Alexander,  D.  D. 

Mr.  Dodge  then  spoke  as  follows : — 

This  is  not  a  funeral  service  to-day,  with  its 
note  of  loss  and  sadness,  but  a  tender  tribute  of 

42 


loving  friends  to  one  who  in  life  was  strong  and 
noble  and  pure ;  who  did  a  grand  work  for  his 
Master  and  for  his  fellow  men ;  who  gave  him- 
self unselfishly,  even  to  the  death,  for  others; 
who  had  no  time  to  rest  here,  and  has  gone  to 
his  rest  in  a  better  world. 

This  room  is  full  of  friends  whose  lives  Mr. 
McBurney  touched,  and  always  touched  to  bless 
and  sweeten.  As  his  life-long  personal  friend, 
it  is  very  hard  for  me  to  express  myself  to-day. 
I  feel  too  deeply  moved  by  a  personal  loss  to 
see  with  a  clear  vision  what  I  would  like  to  see, 
but  I  am  sure  that  all  our  lives  will  be  better  by 
talking  awhile  of  that  life  so  full,  so  useful,  and 
so  wonderful.  I  have  never  known  any  one 
whose  life  I  envied  so  thoroughly ;  he  had  the 
opportunity,  which  he  gladly  seized,  of  always 
working,  day  and  night,  for  his  Master,  whom 
he  loved  so  much,  and  for  his  brothers,  for 
whom  he  had  so  rare  a  sympathy.  Mr.  McBur- 
ney came  nearly  forty  years  ago  into  this  Young 
Men's  Christian  association  work.  It  was  a 
new  work  then ;  it  had  scarcely  the  confidence 
of  even  the  churches.  I  think  that,  in  a  true 
sense,  Mr.  McBurney  was  the  discoverer  of  the 
value  of  young  men  to  themselves,  and  to  the 
church,  and  to  the  state.  He  believed  that  they 
could  be  won  by  sympathy  and  brotherly  kind- 
ness, and  he  believed  that  there  was  a  possi- 
bility in  their  lives  through  which  they  could  be 
saved,  if  they  were  only  led  and  directed  rightly 
in  the  beginning.  I  think  there  was  a  sort  of 
skepticism  for  many  years  about  young  men,  a 
feeling  that  they  must  run  their  chances,  that 
some  would  certainly  fall,  that  many  would  be 
scarred  all  their  lives  through  by  the  tempta- 
tions they  met  with,  and  that  some  few  would 
come  out  rightly.     Mr.  McBurney  believed  in 

43 


better  things  for  young  men.  He  believed,  as 
we  all  do,  that  we  are  all  sons  of  God,  and  that 
every  wandering  lonely  son  could  be  brought 
back  to  his  Father,  if  only  rightly  touched  and 
reached  by  Christian  sympathy  and  love. 

I  want  to  run  over  rapidly  some  of  the  phases 
of  this  wonderful  life,  so  full  of  action  and  ser- 
vice. When  Mr.  McBumey  began  his  work  in 
the  New  York  association,  it  was  very  small, 
and  hardly  known  or  understood  in  the  town. 
It  was  wonderful  how  he  touched  and  influenced 
young  men,  and  yet,  as  I  look  back  upon  it,  it 
was  more  wonderful  how  he  won  the  confidence 
and  esteem  of  the  wealthy  men  of  the  city,  of 
clergymen  of  all  denominations  and  of  all  faiths, 
and  of  good  men  who  loved  the  city  and  the 
country. 

He  put  this  association  on  a  strong  basis ;  he 
arranged  its  organization,  which  has  been  the 
guide  for  the  organization  of  other  associations 
everywhere.  He,  however,  soon  found  the 
necessity  for  a  building  for  the  association.  It 
must  have  a  home,  bright  and  cheerful,  full  of 
all  sorts  of  things  that  would  reach  young  men 
away  from  their  homes,  and  help  them  to  keep 
strong  and  clear  of  temptation.  This  building 
speaks  to  some  of  us  very  touchingly  of  Mr. 
McBumey.  There  is  not  a  room  or  a  corner  of 
it  but  he  designed.  It  was  absolutely  a  new 
thing  in  those  days.  Every  part  of  it  was 
thought  out  so  kindly  and  thoroughly  that 
although  finer  buildings  and  grander  ones  have 
been  built  in  other  places  no  one  of  them  was 
put  up  without  having  for  its  principal  arrange- 
ment those  plans  which  he  devised,  and  which 
have  stood  the  test  of  time. 

Another  thing  that  interested  me  in  those 
early  days  of  Mr.  McBurney's  wonderful  work, 

44 


was  the  fact  that  he  not  only  became  interested 
in  young  men  here  alone  in  the  city,  but  he 
interested  himself  very  keenly  and  warmly  in 
young  men  who  had  homes  and  opportunities 
and  privileges  here,  and  he  sought  and  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  their  confidence,  and  made 
them  feel  that  they  had  an  obligation  to  their 
brothers  who  were  less  privileged  than  they, 
and  he  gathered  about  him  a  large  class  of 
young  men  of  importance  in  the  town,  who  had 
friends  and  relatives  here,  and  through  them 
he  was  enabled  to  obtain  means  for  putting  up 
this  large  building. 

He  then  interested  himself  in  the  develop- 
ment of  association  work  for  young  men  all 
through  the  country.  Of  that  Mr.  Brainerd, 
who  was  long  the  chairman  of  the  international 
committee,  can  speak  better  than  I  can.  In  the 
conferences  that  were  held  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  all  over  the  world  no  one  had  so 
much  influence  as  Mr.  McBumey;  modest,  retir- 
ing, never  wilhng  to  appear  upon  the  platform, 
he  was  always,  with  his  guiding  hand,  behind 
everything  that  was  wise  and  good.  I  believe 
that  the  association  stands  so  high  in  the  world, 
largely  though  that  even  poise  of  judgment, 
that  kindliness,  that  influence  that  he,  with  the 
high  qualities  of  a  gentleman  in  all  his  inter- 
course with  others,  unselfish  and  wise,  was  able 
to  exert. 

He  then  became  interested  in  young  men  of 
other  classes — the  railroad  men,  exposed  as  you 
know  they  are  to  all  the  dangers  of  long  and 
weary  trips  in  summer  and  winter,  and  with  no 
place  to  go,  when  they  came  in  from  their  long 
runs,  but  the  saloon.  He  won  the  confidence  of 
one  who  loyally  and  splendidly  equipped  the 
great  railroad  branch  for  the  association,  which 

45 


has  done  so  much  good  to  the  city.  He  became 
interested  in  the  student  movement  and  in  the 
young  men  of  the  colleges.  It  is  a  wonderful 
thing  for  those  who  are  interested  in  higher 
education,  to  know  how  different  the  Christian 
influence  and  sentiment  in  all  our  great  colleges 
and  universities  is  to-day  from  what  it  was  when 
that  work  began.  Then  the  young  men  com- 
ing from  their  homes  too  often  hid  their  light, 
as  if  ashamed  to  range  themselves  with  other 
Christian  young  men.  Now  it  is  much  more 
commonly  the  thing  for  a  man  to  show  his  col- 
ors, and  a  man  is  esteemed  and  respected  who 
is  a  manly  Christian. 

I  could  go  on  speaking  very  warmly  and  ear- 
nestly of  the  various  phases  of  this  work  as  it 
developed.  It  would  be  unjust  to  him  and  to 
his  precious  memory,  though,  if  we  left  out 
what,  after  all,  was  the  great  work  of  his  life — 
and  that  was  the  daily  touch  with  young  men 
who  came  to  these  rooms;  it  was  every  hour  of 
every  day,  and  every  evening,  summer  and  win- 
ter, Sundays  and  week  days. 

To  those  of  you  who  are  not  acquainted  with 
the  movement  of  young  men  it  would  be  a  sur- 
prise to  know  what  a  clearing  house  for  young 
men  New  York  is.  They  come  here  from 
every  part  of  the  world,  of  every  nationality. 
Soon  they  began  to  find  out  that  there  was  a 
home  feeling  in  this  association,  and  that  they 
could  meet  a  friend  here.  He  had  a  sort  of 
magic  touch.  I  cannot  understand  it.  It  was 
very  kindly,  brotherly,  friendly;  it  was  not 
inquisitive ;  but  he  won  the  confidence  of  these 
young  men  at  once,  and  they  told  him  all  about 
themselves.  He  was  a  sort  of  father  confessor 
to  them.  He  told  them  how  to  withstand 
temptation.     Many  of  those  who  are  settled  in 

46 


New  York  can  tell  you  how  much  influence  he 
had  on  their  lives;  and  I  suppose  there  is 
hardly  a  place  in  the  world  where  English- 
speaking  people  are  found,  where  there  is  not 
one  or  more  young  men  whose  lives  have  been 
changed  by  their  intercourse  with  Mr.  McBur- 
ney.  It  was  a  wonderful  power;  there  was 
such  continuity  about  it ;  it  had  a  direct  effect 
which  always  astonished  those  who  knew  him 
best.  And  then  he  was  so  unconscious  of  it, 
never  speaking  of  his  work  to  others  unless  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  recommend  some  young 
man  to  a  place  for  which  he  was  fitted.  We 
have  not  now,  and  never  will  have,  any  exact 
record  of  what  a  powerful  influence  for  good  he 
was  in  this  direction. 

But  I  am  speaking  too  much  of  Mr.  McBur- 
ney.  There  ought  to  be  a  song  of  triumph 
to-day  from  all  his  brothers.  Having  no  near 
relatives  in  New  York,  and  no  home  here,  he 
lived  in  the  association  and  for  it;  he  took  no 
rest,  but  constantly  was  following  his  Master's 
voice.  He  became  an  adviser  and  counselor 
and  friend  of  people  of  all  kinds  of  religions; 
Catholic  priests,  Jewish  rabbis,  clergymen  of  dif- 
ferent faiths,  were  wont  to  come  here  and  con- 
sult him ;  men  of  large  means,  who  wanted  to 
make  their  wills,  and  who  wanted  to  know  how 
best  to  use  the  money  that  God  had  given  to 
them,  asked  and  acted  on  his  advice. 

This  meeting  has  a  tender  and  pathetic  inter- 
est from  the  fact  that  it  was  arranged  by  Mr. 
McBurney  himself.  It  would  have  been  very 
easy  for  us  to  have  gathered  great  men  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  They  would  gladly  have 
come  to  show  honor  to  him ;  but  with  a  clear 
eye,  knowing  that  his  end  was  very  near, 
quietly  and  calmly  waiting  for  the  coming  of 

47 


his  Master,  he  said  that  he  wanted  no  funeral 
service.  He  merely  wanted  to  have  a  few 
friends,  whose  names  he  gave,  and  who  will 
speak  here  to-day,  talk  to  the  young  men  of  the 
association  and  the  older  men  who  have  gradu- 
ated from  it  and  give  to  them  his  last  message. 

Mr.  McBurney  left  little  money;  almost  every 
dollar  he  gave  away  as  it  came.  He  had  no 
time  in  this  busy  age  to  make  money.  He  was 
living  for  better  and  higher  things,  but  he  left 
as  his  last  will  and  testament  this  injunction  to 
us,  ' '  that  we  should  be  loyal  to  the  association, 
and  that  we  should  gladly  continue  in  the  per- 
sonal work  of  winning  souls  to  Christ " ;  loyal  to 
the  work  he  loved,  personal  work  for  the  Sav- 
iour, for  whom  he  lived  and  died.  That  is  his 
bequest  to  us.  We  are  his  executors  and  trus- 
tees. 

In  that  beautiful  address  made  by  Bishop 
Potter  at  Mr.  McBumey's  funeral  service  a  few 
days  ago,  he  told  us,  as  some  of  you  remember, 
that  this  death  led  us  to  "readjust  our  standard 
of  values."  How  little  do  glory  and  money  and 
worldly  successes  count,  as  contrasted  with  such 
a  life  as  that  of  our  dear  friend !  He  beheved 
with  all  his  heart  that  every  Christian  man, 
clergyman  and  layman,  had  just  such  opportu- 
nities, and  that  if  they  all  would  only  awake  to 
their  opportunities  and  chances  of  work  for 
Christ,  this  world  would  soon  begin  to  gladden 
and  brighten  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 

I  hope  we  shall  all  take  away  with  us  the 
memory  of  this  good  and  beautiful  life,  and 
take  away  more  than  that,  the  impulse  to  follow 
him  as  he  followed  Christ. 

Mr.  William  W.  Hoppin  was  then  introduced 
by  the  chairman   as   a   warm    friend   of    Mr. 

48 


McBurney  and  for  a  long  time  president  of  the 
association.     He  spoke  as  follows  : — 

I  would  feel  indeed  unable  to  speak  on  an 
occasion  of  this  kind  if  I  supposed  that  any  of 
you  had  come  to  hear  me.  The  thought  that  is 
in  your  hearts  and  in  my  heart  is  that  we  are  all 
here  because  we  loved  Robert  McBurney. 
Izaak  Walton  said  that  a  companion  who  was 
cheerful  was  golden,  and  I  think  he  would 
have  enjoyed  the  companionship  of  Robert  Mc- 
Burney. He  was  a  man — cordial,  cheerful, 
hopeful,  everything  that  makes  a  man  attractive 
for  young  and  old  in  this  life  struggle.  His 
cheerfulness  did  not  come  from  that  inactive 
good  nature  which  we  see  sometimes  in  men 
who  have  not  the  desire  to  fight  the  battle  of 
life  and  who  have  not  the  courage  of  their  con- 
victions. His  cheerfulness  was  bom  of  love; 
his  influence  came  not  in  the  wedge  shape  which 
thrusts  itself  in  and  rends  asunder,  but  it  was 
more  like  the  sunshine,  which  all  feel  who  come 
near  it.  He  was  a  tactful  man ;  and  when  we 
say  tactful  we  do  not  mean  that  element  in  a 
man  which  leads  him  to  seek  the  favor  of  others 
obsequiously  for  his  own  good.  He  was  tactful 
because  he  had  no  self-love. 

I  think  he  was  the  most  self-forgetful  man 
that  I  ever  met.  It  was  at  the  basis  of  every- 
thing that  he  did.  I  suppose  that  some  here 
remember  the  days  when  the  executive  com- 
mittee met  in  the  room  over  there  at  five  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  and  when,  after  a  weary  day 
of  work  and  with  a  feeling  that  we  ought  not  to 
be  called  upon  to  do  anything  more  that  day 
but  should  be  allowed  to  go  home,  we  entered 
the  room  to  find  McBurney  always  there  and 
always  full  of  good  things  that  he  wished  to 

49 


have  considered.  And  so  the  half-hours  would 
go,  and  the  hours  would  go,  and  though  we 
would  be  restless  to  get  away — how  well  I  can 
remember  it — he  never  thought  about  hours  for 
eating  and  sleeping  or  anything  else  that  con- 
cerned his  personal  comfort  so  long  as  the  asso- 
ciation work  claimed  him.  Sometimes  he  would 
rise,  when  we  were  getting  restless  and  moving 
towards  the  door,  and  with  that  peculiarly  inter- 
ested look  in  his  face  that  held  everyone  he 
would  say,  ' '  Do  not  go,  please ;  stay  just  one 
moment."  And  then  he  would  develop  some 
plan  which  would  lead  us  to  forget  dinner  and 
other  things — something  that  he  had  been  think- 
ing about  and  wanted  acted  upon  because  he 
knew  it  was  of  vital  importance.  I  have  not 
had  the  privilege  of  being  associated  with  him 
now  for  many  years  in  the  active  work  of  the 
association.  Yet  whenever  recently  I  have  met 
him  I  have  felt  strengthened  and  helped.  If  it 
was  only  for  a  moment  on  the  street,  as  I  was 
passing  down  to  my  business,  he  always  stopped 
and  had  a  word  about  the  work. 

I  am  not  going  to  ask  you  to  listen  to  me 
while  I  speak  in  detail  of  his  work.  I  am  here 
simply  because  I  loved  him,  and  want  to  say 
what  I  think  he  would  like  to  have  me  say,  and 
it  is  this — that,  if  in  this  work  you  young  men 
are  to  make  your  mark  and  help  your  fellow 
men,  you  must  be  absolutely  without  self-love. 
I  do  not  mean  merely  that  you  should  practice 
self-denial ;  that  is  good,  but  self-forgetfulness 
is  better — counting  one's  self  as  nothing,  and 
Christ  as  everything.  That  was  the  secret  of 
McBurney's  power — the  spontaneity  of  the  man. 
Perfunctory? — he  could  not  be  perfunctory.  In 
everything  he  did  you  felt  that  there  was  a  great 
moving  power  within  him.     The  members  of 

50 


the  boys'  club,  who  came  to  him  with  some  little 
matter,  he  was  immediately  in  touch  with  and 
knew  their  wants,  and  entered  into  full  sympa- 
thy with  them.     He  loved  Christ  more  than  he 
loved  any  other  person  or  thing,  and  it  was  no 
self-denial  for  him  to  work.     He  was  not  think- 
ing of  what  place  he  was  to  occupy,  and  what 
effect  it  was  to  have  on  him,  but  of  his  work  for 
the  Master.     He  was  human,  he  had  his  limita- 
tions ;  but  his  life  overstepped  the  Hmitations. 
He  was  not  institutionalized;  but  if  I  may  use 
the  phrase,  he  McBurneyized  the  institution- 
nay,  he  was  the  power  inside  that  moved  and 
widened  the  association  work.     Why,  I  remem- 
ber my  first  visit  to  the  rooms,  years  ago,  in  the 
absence  of  McBumey.     There  did  not  seem  to 
be  anything  to  them.     The  secretary  did  not 
know  what  it  was  to  be  a  secretary.     His  was  a 
sort  of  perfunctory  duty  of  keeping  rooms  open 
and  pamphlets  on  hand.     But  McBurney  found 
out  what  young  men  needed.     Under  him  the 
work   of  the   institution    developed,  and   men 
began  to  realize  that  young  men  were  to  be 
taken  care  of,  and  men  of  wealth  and  power, 
who  had  not  thought  of  these  things,  came  for- 
ward to  give  to  McBurney  all  the  support  and 
all  the  help  that  he  needed. 

Young  men !  let  me  ask  you  one  thing.  In 
this  crowded,  restless  city,  do  you  think  you  are 
doing  Christ's  work?  Are  you  doing  it  in  a 
perfunctory  way?  Are  you  attending  your  com- 
mittee meetings,  and  church  meetings,  and 
gomg  to  the  association  on  a  sort  of  debit  and 
credit  account  system,  because  you  owe  a  little 
on  this  side  of  the  account,  and  a  little  to  the 
world?  Are  you  thinking  only  of  self-advance- 
ment? Because,  if  you  are,  you  cannot  do 
McBumey's  work,  and  the  work  he  wanted  the 


51 


association  to  do.  You  cannot  be  as  useful  as 
he  was  unless  you  can  get  as  close  to  the  Mas- 
ter as  he  did,  and  as  far  outside  of  yourself  as 
he  did;  but,  if  you  do,  you  will  then  realize 
what  power  and  love  for  the  work  will  develop. 

Mr.  Richard  C.  Morse,  general  secretary  of 
the  international  committee,  and  for  thirty  years 
associated  with  Mr.  McBurney  in  work  for  young 
men,  was  introduced,  and  spoke  as  follows : — 

Mr.  McBumey  was  a  man  of  right  choices. 
When  he  came  to  this  city,  a  friendless  young 
man,  on  the  evening  of  his  arrival  he  sought 
the  rooms  of  the  association,  then  obscure  and 
small  but  hospitable.  He  made  a  right  choice 
that  first  day — a  choice  of  right  companionship, 
and  soon  he  was  in  the  church  and  in  the  Sun- 
day-school. Eight  years  passed  away,  during 
which  he  made  a  beginning  of  business  life  in 
the  great  city.  Then,  being  temporarily  out  of 
employment,  he  was  asked  to  take  temporary 
charge  of  the  association  rooms.  He  consented 
to  this.  And  the  first  holiday  that  occurred  he 
spent  in  those  rooms,  little  dreaming  that  he 
would,  in  a  similar  way,  spend  every  future 
holiday  of  his  life  in  the  rooms  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  For  on  that  day 
a  stranger  young  man,  friendless  as  he  had  been 
when  he  arrived  in  the  city,  came  into  the  rooms, 
and  during  the  day  Mr.  McBurney  led  him  to 
faith  and  trust  in  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Saviour. 
In  telling  me  the  story  years  afterward,  he 
added,  * '  That  settled  my  choice  of  Christian 
work  as  a  life  work."  He  did  not  then  intelli- 
gently choose  what  we  now  call  the  work  of  a 
general  secretary,  for  there  was  then  little  idea 
of  what  that  office  and  its  work  was.     In  that 

52 


infant    period    of    the    association    its   present 
methods,  agencies,  and  permanent  mission  were 
not  defined.     But  later,  when  this  building  was 
in  process  of  construction,  he  told  me  one  day 
that  he  was  thinking  of  eventually  studying  for 
the  gospel   ministry,  as  his   goal   in  Christian 
work.     A  few  friends  had  counseled  him  to  do  | 
this.     I  expressed  great  surprise,  for  I  had  been  | 
deeply  impressed,  as  were  many  others,  with  | 
his  rare  qualification  for  the  work  in  which  he  I 
was  then  engaged.     But  he  said,  ' '  Very  soon  | 
I  will  be  old ;   too  old  for  the  secretaryship ;  too  - 
old  to  help  young  men,  and  they  will  want  to 
get  rid  of  me. "     That  critical  deliberation  ended 
in  a  third  right  choice.     This  building  was  com- 
pleted, and  the  fuller  outline  of  the  work,  then 
new  and  strange  in  the  land  and  in  the  church, 
came  clearly  and  well  defined  before  his  vision, 
and  he  devoted  himself  to  it  with  a  life  enthu- 
siasm that  never  faltered. 

At  the  time  this  building  was  dedicated,  in 
December,  1869,  it  was  my  privilege — a  very 
great  privilege — to  have  our  pathways  in  life 
and  work  unite.  It  had  been  owing  to  his  influ- 
ence that,  some  years  before,  I  had  become  con- 
nected with  the  New  York  association,  and  now 
it  was  owing  to  his  suggestion  and  influence 
that  I  became  an  employed  ofiicer  of  the  inter- 
national committee.  A  desk  was  assigned  me 
in  the  office  of  the  committee,  which  had  been 
located  near  his  own  office  in  the  new  building. 
Later,  we  occupied  rooms  in  the  tower  of  the 
building  for  ten  years.  He  little  dreamed  what 
he  was  doing  in  those  first  thirteen  years  in  this 
building.  In  December,  1869,  when  it  was 
opened  and  dedicated,  it  was  the  only  structure 
of  its  kind  in  the  world — the  only  one  that  had 
been  built  to  accommodate  what  we  are  now 

53 


familiar  with  as  the  fourfold  work  of  the  asso- 
ciation :  physical,  intellectual,  social,  and  spirit- 
ual. Some  parts  of  this  work  were  then  a  new 
experiment.  Some  of  the  leaders  were  doubt- 
ful how  long  they  could  keep  together  as  a  unit 
all  the  varied  work  attempted  in  this  building. 
The  distinctive  and  invaluable  service  which 
Mr.  McBurney  rendered  the  association  con- 
sisted in  his  outlining  and  illustrating  the  nature, 
qualifications,  and  work  of  its  executive  em- 
ployed officer.  He  was  giving  his  life  to  this 
varied  work  for  young  men  in  Christ's  name. 
It  was  a  complicated  and  difficult  task,  requiring 
a  man  of  rare  ability  and  great  endowment. 
Mr.  McBurney,  in  those  thirteen  years,  met  in 
an  exemplary  way  this  exacting  requirement. 

As  American  citizens  we  deem  it  to  have  been 
of  vast  benefit  to  the  country  that  when,  in  the 
infancy  of  the  republic,  its  first  chief  executive 
was  to  be  chosen,  a  man  was  elected  to  the  pres- 
idency who  was  as  much  greater  than  the  ofhce 
as  "The  Father  of  his  Country"  is  greater  than 
any  office  in  the  gift  of  that  country.  And  in 
that  critical  period  of  our  history,  when  there 
was  also  needed  a  first  secretary  of  the  treasury 
— the  bankrupt  treasury  of  the  republic — was  it 
not  a  vast  and  providential  benefit  that  Alexan- 
der Hamilton  was  greater  than  the  office  which 
he  undertook  to  define  and  administer?  Because 
of  their  extraordinary  qualifications  these  two 
great  men  so  administered  their  trust  as  to 
influence  and  shape  the  administration  of  the 
presidency  and  the  treasury  for  all  time  to  the 
vast  advantage  of  the  nation.  Equally  happy 
was  it  for  the  brotherhood  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  that  its  first  general  sec- 
retary, who  was  called  upon  to  define  the  nature, 
qualifications,   and   duties  of   the  office,  was  a 

54 


man  so  much  greater  than  the  office  that  he 
gave  to  it  at  the  very  outset  a  character  and 
usefulness  which  otherwise  could  not  have  been 
realized. 

He  attended  faithfully  the  annual  meetings 
of  the  American  general  secretaries,  beginning 
with  the  first  in  1871,  when  barely  a  dozen  were 
present,  who  constituted  the  great  majority  of 
such  officers  then  employed  by  the  associations. 
For  more  than  ten  years,  while  the  number  of 
secretaries  increased  from  a  dozen  to  several 
hundred,  this  was  the  best  existing  institute  for 
training  these  officers.  In  these  formative  years 
he  was  leader,  guide,  instructor,  exemplar. 
And  then  when  the  time  was  ripe  he  exerted  all 
his  influence  to  help  in  founding  the  first  secre- 
tarial training  school,  and  was  for  years  its  chief 
counselor  and  trustee. 

He,  however,  was  not  then  intent  upon  or  con- 
scious of  doing  this  work  for  the  country  and 
the  world.  He  was  doing  his  work  for  those 
young  men  that  were  coming  into  this  building 
day  after  day,  and  year  after  year,  whom  he 
was  leading  to  faith  and  life  in  Jesus  Christ. 
He  was  doing  it  out  of  that  unselfish  love 
for  men  which  Jesus  Christ  planted  in  his  heart, 
and  because  this  love  dominated  his  life.  But 
none  the  less  he  was  doing  an  invaluable  work 
for  the  whole  brotherhood  in  this  land  and  in 
other  lands.  Men  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  into  this  building.  If  I  have  seen  one 
man  stand  on  the  corner  of  Fourth  avenue  and 
Twenty-third  street  and  put  his  valise  down  on 
the  ground  that  he  might  enjoy  the  sight  of  this 
building,  I  have  seen  hundreds,  and  they  would 
come  to  the  door  and  read  the  name  over  it, 
and  on  their  faces  came  a  look  of  surprise,  that 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  should 

55 


possess  such  a  building.  Many  of  these  men 
entered  and  examined  the  building,  and  before 
that  decade  was  over  quite  a  number  of  build- 
ings on  this  model  had  been  erected  by  the 
associations  in  different  cities.  Mr.  McBumey, 
when  he  prepared  the  annual  reports  that  he 
read  from  this  desk  year  after  year,  as  the  older 
ones  among  you  will  remember,  often  gave  par- 
ticular account,  not  only  of  the  progress  of  the 
New  York  city  association,  but  also  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  work  in  the  state  and  throughout 
the  continent  and  the  world. 

To  the  New  York  state  conventions  he  went 
steadily.  He  was  the  father  and  founder  of  this 
state  organization  and  work.  To  every  inter- 
national convention  save  one,  beginning  with 
1865,  he  went  with  equal  fidelity.  To  him  a 
convention  was  a  thing  of  life.  Of  this  life  he 
felt  himself  to  be  a  part.  He  seemed  to  feel  the 
pulse-beat  of  it  during  all  the  sessions  and  to  be 
sensitive  to  everything  that  was  vitally  related 
to  the  work  of  the  convention  and  to  its  best 
interests  and  usefulness.  He  brought  to  the 
floor  the  expert  knowledge  of  a  local  secretary, 
which  he,  above  all  men  in  the  country  during 
those  early  formative  years,  was  acquiring  in 
this  building.  How  often  during  that  period, 
after  a  weary  visit  to  fields  of  association  work 
that  were  full  of  discouragement,  have  I  come 
up  those  stairs  and  passed  into  the  reception 
room  to  meet  his  cheerful  greeting,  and  to  look 
about  me  and  to  feel  that  the  heart  of  the  work 
was  sound  and  healthy,  and  that  the  strong 
pulse  that  was  beating  here  would  send  the  life- 
blood  through  the  whole  brotherhood !  All  this 
was  due  to  his  efficient  day  and  night  service 
year  in  and  year  out. 

He  attended  every  World's  Conference  save 

56 


one  in  the  capitals  of  Europe  between  1872  and 
1894;  and  last  summer,  when  we  met  at  Basle 
— delegates  from  twenty-three  nations,  speaking 
fifteen  languages — the  only  cablegram  of  greet- 
ing sent  by  that  latest  World's  Conference  was 
addressed  to  Robert  McBurney  at  the  Presby- 
terian Hospital  in  this  city,  telling  him  of  the 
sympathy  of  the  whole  world  brotherhood,  and 
of  how  keenly  all  mourned  the  loss  of  his  inval- 
uable counsel  and  cooperation. 

Now  the  same  retiring  modesty  that  he  was 
ever  manifesting  here,  visible  to  you  all,  he 
manifested  in  these  larger  public  meetings.  He 
did  not  seek  the  platform.  Again  and  again  he 
was  sought  as  president  of  our  American  inter- 
national convention;  once  he  was  elected,  but 
declined  to  serve.  He  rejoiced  in  doing  the 
unseen  work  in  a  quiet,  unnoticed  way.  At 
that  great  jubilee  convention,  the  World's  Con- 
ference in  London  in  1894 — the  last  which  he 
attended — he  was  chairman  of  its  chief  execu- 
tive committee,  consisting  of  members  from  the 
various  countries  represented.  He  had  oppor- 
tunity for  hearing  very  little  that  was  said  on 
the  floor  in  Exeter  Hall,  so  he  told  me,  because 
in  that  committee  there  was  indispensable  quiet 
work  to  be  done — a  quiet  work  of  conciliation, 
on  which  rested  the  unity  of  the  movement,  a 
work  that  could  only  be  accomplished  by  prayer 
and  the  wisest  and  most  loving  endeavor. 
There  was  a  sad  lack  of  unity  in  the  committee 
when  it  was  first  appointed  and  called  together. 
It  was  not  until  just  before  the  last  session  of 
the  conference  that  the  triumph  of  peace  and 
unity  was  gained  in  prayer  led  by  the  chairman, 
Robert  McBurney.  In  the  report  of  that  con- 
ference— a  very  interesting  report,  filling  an 
octavo  volume — you  will  find  much  wise  and 

57 


eloquent  discourse ;  but  you  will  search  in  vain 
for  any  mention  of  the  fact  that  I  have  stated  to 
you,  and  yet  on  that  quiet  work  of  conciliation 
hinged  very  much  of  what  was  accomplished  in 
that  memorable  assembly.  He  was  able  to 
render  this  important  and  critical  service  for  the 
World's  Conference  of  1894  because  already  in 
many  American  conventions,  especially  during 
the  formative  period  of  the  association  move- 
ment, he  had  again  and  again  rendered  the 
same  invaluable,  unrecorded  service. 

All  the  wide  and  varied  service  of  this  busy 
life  was  wrought,  as  we  now  see,  not  only  for 
the  young  men  he  was  meeting  in  this  city,  but 
for  the  young  men  of  the  nation,  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  of  the  world.  He  was  successful  in  it 
all,  not  merely  because  he  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able ability  and  talent,  but  because  he  was  a 
man  of  rare  consecration  and  of  rare  endow- 
ment by  the  Spirit  of  God  with  that  unselfish 
love  which  the  Apostle  Paul  struggles  to  put 
into  words  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  As  I  read  and  pon- 
der those  words  I  shall  ever  think  of  Robert 
McBurney,  and  how,  in  the  close  companionship 
of  many  blessed  years  of  personal  friendship,  he 
carried  home  to  my  conscience,  my  heart  and 
my  life  the  meaning  of  that  matchless  portion 
of  the  Word  of  God. 

Well,  he  is  gone  from  us — so  we  say,  because 
these  bodily  eyes  do  not  see  him.  But  I  believe 
that  he  is  here  with  us  and  solicitous  as  ever  for 
this  work,  that  it  should  be  kept  close  to  its 
divine  purpose,  always  animated  by  the  spirit  as 
well  as  bearing  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
as  I  think  of  him  as  he  appeared  on  this  plat- 
form year  after  year  to  report  the  work  of  the 
association  it  will  always  be  pleasant  to  recall 

$8 


two  verses  of  a  hymn  which  I  remember  he  dis- 
covered in  the  hymn  book  one  day  when  we 
were  working  over  the  annual  report.  With  a 
light  in  his  countenance,  and  joy  in  his  voice, 
he  exclaimed,  ''We  must  put  these  verses  at 
the  end  of  the  report  this  year !  "  You  will  find 
them  at  the  close  of  his  report  for  1873.  They 
express  the  aspiration  of  his  life,  which  he 
wants  us  all  to  share  with  him : — 

"  We  who  so  tenderly  were  sought, 
Shall  we  not  joyful  seekers  be, 
And  to  Thy  feet  divinely  brought, 
Help  weaker  souls,  O  Lord,  to  Thee  ? 

"  Celestial  Seeker,  send  us  forth  ! 
Almighty  Lover,  teach  us  love  ! 
When  shall  we  yearn  to  help  our  earth 
As  yearned  the  Holy  One  above?" 

The  chairman  introduced  Mr.  A.  H.  De- 
Haven,  who,  on  behalf  of  the  trustees  of  St. 
Paul's  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  presented 
the  following  memorial  and  resolutions : — 

Minute  adopted  by  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  St. 
Paul's  Methodist  Episcopal  church  at  a  special  meeting 
held  January' eighth,  1899: — 

In  the  removal  of  Robert  R.  McBurney,  who  departed 
this  life  December  twenty-seventh,  1898,  the  officiary 
and  membership  of  St.  Paul's  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
New  York,  sustain  a  loss  of  unusual  gravity. 

Uniting  with  the  church  in  August,  1854,  and  remain- 
ing in  its  fellowship  until  his  death,  he  was  prominently 
identified  with  its  continuous  life  for  more  than  forty 
years. 

Occupied  with  the  service  of  the  institution  for  the 
success  of  which  he  gave  his  life,  omitting  no  detail  in 
the  discharge  of  his  obligations  to  that  organization,  he 
yet  found  opportunity  to  devote  himself  with  singular 
earnestness  to  the  interests  of  the  church  with  which  he 

59 


was  connected.  Without  a  trace  of  narrowness  in  his 
composition,  quick  to  discover  and  ready  to  acknowledge 
the  good  in  every  form  of  religious  activity,  rising  above 
all  mere  sectarian  and  partisan  considerations,  convinced 
that  the  service  of  Christ  transcends  loyalty  to  a  human 
creed,  he  nevertheless  clung  with  sterling  fidelity  to  the 
doctrine  and  polity  of  that  body  of  Christians  with  which 
he  associated  himself  early  in  life.  Such  was  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  his  wisdom  by  his  brethren  that  for 
many  years  he  was  an  honored  member  of  the  board  of 
trustees  and  of  the  board  of  stewards  of  St.  Paul's  church. 
In  official  position  he  bore  himself  with  exceeding  dis- 
cretion and  dignity.  He  was  the  comrade  and  counselor 
of  his  pastor,  the  judicious  but  humble  monitor  of  his 
fellow  laborers,  the  chivalric  Christian  gentleman  at  all 
times  and  ever^^where.  His  loving  forbearance,  his 
untiring  patience,  his  exhaustless  charity,  made  him  an 
inspiring  personality  to  all  who  met  him. 

Generous  beyond  his  means,  it  was  his  fortune  to  scat- 
ter in  God's  name,  and  not  to  husband  in  his  own.  Per- 
sistent against  all  discouragements  in  prosecuting  his 
providential  task,  he  saw  the  noble  fruitage  of  his  toil  in 
the  salvation  of  many  souls.  "  He  was  a  good  man,  and 
full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith ;  and  much  people  was 
added  unto  the  Lord"  by  him. 

His  distinguished  services  in  behalf  of  young  men  have 
ineffaceably  written  his  eulogy  in  the  character  of  those 
whom  he  helped  to  a  better  life ;  the  record  of  his  achieve- 
ments will  constitute  an  important  chapter  in  the  history 
of  Christian  progress  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  America ;  the  memory  of  his  gracious  fellow- 
ship, his  helpful  ministry,  his  heroic  consecration,  will 
abide  forever  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  were  privileged 
to  be  his  companions. 

Having  departed  to  that  better  country  whither  his 
feet  were  ever  tending,  and  whence  he  will  not  return, 
we  record  our  profound  sense  of  personal  loss,  our  sin- 
cere sympathy  for  the  great  organization  so  sorely  bereft, 

60 


and  our  hearty  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  abundant 
life  and  the  triumphant  faith  of  our  translated  brother. 
(Signed)     E.  M.  F.  Miller, 

Secretary. 

The  Honorable  Elihu  Root  was  then  intro- 
duced, and  on  behalf  of  the  trustees  and  direc- 
tors of  the  New  York  association,  presented  the 
following  memorial  and  resolution : — 

Robert  R.  McBumey  died  on  Tuesday,  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  December,  1898,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one  years, 

In  the  death  of  Mr.  McBumey  the  association,  the 
community  the  Christian  world,  mankind,  have  lost  a 
friend,  and  a  life  of  rare  usefulness  has  closed.  He  has 
left  an  impression  upon  the  manhood  of  his  day  and  gen- 
eration which  has  been  permitted  to  few  men.  For 
thirty  and  six  years  he  has  been  the  general  secretary  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  New  York 
City,  being  the  first  to  occupy  that  position.  Having 
been  identified  with  the  association  from  its  early  days 
to  its  present,  from  the  time  when  its  life  seemed  flicker- 
ing in  uncertainty  until  the  time  when  its  influence  has 
become  recognized  and  welcomed  throughout  Christen- 
dom, he  has  exercised  a  powerful  formative  influence 
upon  this  work,  not  only  in  America,  but  throughout 
Europe  and  the  world.  Modest,  untiring,  wise  and 
unselfish,  a  man  of  refined  and  cultured  tastes,  and  of 
attractive  personality,  he  was  the  adviser,  the  friend, 
and  the  helper  of  young  men. 

The  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
was  an  almost  untried  experiment  when  he  became  iden- 
tified with  it,  and  he  lived  to  see  it  a  great  power  in  the 
land.  He  was  so  genuine  and  brotherly  in  his  personal 
contact  with  young  men  of  all  classes,  that  he  won  their 
confidence,  cheered  and  counseled  them  in  loneliness 
and  temptation,  and  fortified  them  until  they  learned  to 
battle  for  themselves.     Night  and  day,  without  sparing 

61 


himself,  he  patiently  and  gladly  continued  this  quiet, 
unobserved  work,  to  be  evident  only  in  the  consecrated 
lives  of  those  he  influenced.  His  sympathies  were  broad- 
ened by  his  faith,  and  were  limited  to  no  one  field  of 
himian  service.  Men  of  all  creeds  came  to  him  for  advice 
and  help,  and  in  all  Christian  charities  and  social  reforms 
his  experience,  his  mature  knowledge  of  men,  and  his  saga- 
city in  the  affairs  of  life,  gave  rare  value  to  his  counsels. 
His  life  consisted  of  a  constant  and  generous  giving  out 
of  himself  for  others,  until  calmly  and  with  faith  await- 
ing the  summons,  he  died,  not  full  of  years,  but  his  years 
filled  with  noble  effort  and  grand  results,  his  thoughts  to 
the  last  intent  upon  the  work  he  was  leaving  and  the 
friends  he  loved.  We  recognize  the  goodness  of  God  in 
giving  us  for  so  many  years  the  work  of  this  devoted 
man.     His  memory  is  a  benediction  and  an  inspiration. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  eight,  consisting  of  the 
presiding  oflficer  of  this  meeting  as  chairman,  and  seven 
others  to  be  named  by  him,  be  hereby  appointed,  who 
shall  take  whatever  steps  their  judgment  prompts  to 
provide  a  fitting  memorial  of  the  life  and  services  of  this 
friend  of  young  men,  and  of  his  unparalleled  work  in 
their  behalf. 

Mr.  Root  then  spoke  as  follows : — 

I  offer  this  resolution,  Mr.  Chairman,  not 
simply  because  I  have  been  asked  to  offer  it  by 
the  trustees  of  the  association  who  caused  it  to 
be  prepared,  but  with  a  hearty  and  genuine 
sympathy  in  the  words  and  the  purpose  of  the 
resolution,  which  recalls  a  permanent  friendship 
of  nearly  thirty-four  years ;  with  the  very  deep- 
est affection  and  gratitude  for  helpful  kindness 
in  my  early  life ;  and  with  admiration  for  Mr. 
McBurney's  character  and  his  preeminent  quali- 
ties as  a  man  and  for  the  great  things  he  has 
done.  Gratitude  and  affection  have  followed 
him  during  all  the  course  of  his  days,  but  now 

62 


that  he  is  gone  and  we  can  look  back  upon  his 
life  we  only  begin  to  realize  how  great  he  was. 
When  we  remember  how  prejudice,  bitterness 
and  cruelty  have  divided  mankind  in  all  the 
years  of  theological  strife,  we  may  realize  how 
great  was  the  nature  that  brought  together  in 
the  pursuit  of  a  common  end  men  of  all  denomi- 
nations. How  great  a  nature  was  this  that 
attracted  all  and  repelled  none !  He  was  simple, 
direct,  truthful ;  and  yet  he  was  skillful,  adroit, 
carefully  weighing  and  following  the  wisest 
course  to  attain  the  end. 

I  think  the  secret  of  his  wonderful  success  lay 
in  the  quality  of  sympathy  with  the  best  in  every 
man's  nature.  It  made  no  difference  what  the 
man  was — what  his  associations,  his  training, 
his  beliefs,  his  purposes — the  best  there  was  in 
him  Robert  McBurney  found  with  the  unerring 
sympathy  of  his  wonderful  spirit.  His  life  was 
a  thing  above  all  dogmas ;  and  with  his  unselfish- 
ness, his  freedom  from  cant,  the  intensity  of  his 
belief  and  the  wonderful  persistence  of  his  pur- 
pose, he  accomplished  a  work  the  like  of  which 
has  never  been  seen  in  the  days  of  our  modem 
civilization  among  all  the  people  of  Christian 
religions.  I  believe  that  while  we  have  parted 
with  him  as  a  friend — as  the  kindly,  gentle  com- 
panion, with  his  attractive  manner  and  sweet 
temper — as  he  recedes  into  the  past  and  men  look 
back  at  him  he  will  be  seen  to  be  a  greater  man, 
of  a  greater  nature  and  of  a  greater  worth,  than 
many  among  those  of  his  day  who  have  filled 
great  places  in  church  and  state,  have  founded 
great  fortunes,  builded  great  material  works, 
and  have  been  highly  esteemed  by  mankind. 

Cephas  Brainerd  was  introduced,  and  spoke 
as  follows: — 

63 


I  have  one  reason  which  I  deem  unanswerable 
for  taking  part  in  this  service,  and  that  is,  Mr. 
McBumey  in  his  will  named  those  whom  he 
wished  to  have  invited  to  speak  if  such  a  meet- 
ing as  this  were  held.  He  also  indicated  clearly 
the  general  topics  which  he  thought  might  be 
treated. 

An  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  McBumey, 
commencing  in  1862  and  continued  to  the  end 
of  his  life,  the  affection  which  existed  between 
us,  my  own  sense  of  personal  loss  as  well  as  my 
sense  of  the  loss  which  the  association  cause  in 
New  York  and  in  the  wide  world  has  suffered 
in  his  death,  the  consciousness  of  the  loss  which 
many  good  enterprises  have  suffered  in  this  visi- 
tation, would  together,  in  their  influence  upon 
me  personally,  have  prevented  any  active  partici- 
pation in  the  scenes  of  this  day.  I  shall  not, 
therefore,  in  anything  I  may  say,  refer  to  the 
circumstances  which  make  the  visitation  which 
calls  us  together  so  completely  afflictive. 

When  I  met  Mr.  McBumey,  and  for  some 
time  thereafter,  the  predominating  quaUty 
which  he  exhibited  was  that  of  diffidence.  True, 
he  was  kindly,  genial  and  pleasing ;  but  he  was 
extremely  modest  and  retiring.  Indeed,  I 
believe  he  had  never  spoken  in  any  meeting 
public  in  its  character.  It  was  probably  true, 
as  was  often  said,  that  he  was  willing  to  take 
part  in  the  devotional  services  of  his  own  church 
because  it  was  there  the  custom  for  all  persons 
to  kneel  during  prayer,  and  so  he  could  be  heard 
practically  from  a  place  of  concealment,  being 
hidden  by  the  backs  of  the  benches. 

At  that  early  date  he  exhibited  none  of  those 
larger  qualities  which  afterwards  distinguished 
him.  He  was  then  neither  a  reader  nor  a 
student,  and  his  familiarity  with  affairs,  such  as 

64 


it  was,  seeemed  to  have  come  solely  from  a  good 
knowledge  of  the  moderate  business  in  which 
he  had  been  engaged  as  a  clerk.  He  withdrew 
from  school  and  came  here  early  in  life,  not 
wholly  in  accordance  with  the  advice  or  wishes 
of  his  parents.  His  father  was  a  Christian  man, 
a  competent  and  popular  physician,  and  his 
mother  a  devoted  and  exemplary  woman,  filling 
admirably  her  position.  He  could  not  have 
received  any  considerable  financial  assistance 
from  home. 

All  present  this  afternoon  know  what  Mr. 
McBurney  was  at  the  close  of  his  extremely 
useful  life.  From  the  time  of  my  first  acquaint- 
ance with  him  he  rapidly  advanced,  taking  no 
step  backward  to  the  end ;  and  the  resolutions 
which  have  been  submitted,  while  wholly  true, 
inadequately  describe  his  career.  No  man  I 
have  ever  known  grew  more  steadily  or  in  a 
more  shapely  way  than  Mr.  McBurney.  In  the 
largest  sense  of  the  words  he  was  a  thoroughly 
self-made  man. 

I  can  best  fill  out,  while  saying  something 
about  him,  the  idea  which  I  think  was  in  his 
mind  when  he  gave  the  directions  for  this  ser- 
vice, by  noting  some  of  the  elements  which  con- 
tributed to  his  continuous  growth. 

He  had  a  wonderful  faculty  for  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge;  all  was  fish  that  came  to  his  net. 
Wherever  he  was,  whatever  he  was  doing, 
whomsoever  he  was  with,  this  wonderful  acquisi- 
tive faculty  was  in  constant  operation.  The 
newspapers,  the  companions  in  the  cars,  the 
visitors  at  his  room  and  at  his  office,  the  talks 
that  he  heard,  the  sermons  that  he  listened  to, 
the  books  that  he  read,  and  the  books  that  others 
read  to  him,  were  all  his  helpers.  What  he 
read,  and  heard,  and  saw,  his  strong  memory 

65 


retained  and  the  quickness  of  his  faculties  enabled 
him  to  employ  as  occasion  might  require,  so 
that,  as  you  all  know,  he  became  a  wise  instruc- 
tor, a  judicious  adviser,  a  thorough  executive 
officer,  an  educated  man. 

When  he  began  his  career  in  the  association, 
there  was  in  its  management  and  upon  its  com- 
mittees a  group  of  extremely  able,  wise,  and 
public- spirited  men.  Its  affairs,  the  principles 
upon  which  it  was  founded,  the  work  which  it 
could  consistently  undertake  in  furtherance  of 
those  principles,  were  thoroughly  and  carefully 
discussed  by  these  men.  Within  three  years 
after  he  became  connected  officially  with  the 
association,  the  enterprise  was  begun  which 
resulted  in  the  building  we  now  occupy.  It  was 
for  such  an  institution  an  unexampled  under- 
taking. The  obtaining  of  the  money  necessary 
to  erect  it  involved  a  great  deal  of  consideration, 
much  solicitation,  and  many  efforts  to  secure 
public  attention  to  it ;  with  all  these  Mr.  McBumey 
became  very  familiar,  and  in  them  he  had  his 
appropriate  part.  He  was  constant  in  his  atten- 
tion to  the  work  of  constructing  and  fitting  up 
this  building,  which  seems  even  now  pervaded 
by  his  benignant  presence.  During  all  this  long 
period  and  long  after,  men  such  as  I  have  men- 
tioned continued  their  connection  with  the 
undertaking.  Happily,  many  of  them  are  now 
living  and  in  active  service — some  are  present, 
and  I  do  not  mention  their  names — as  types, 
however,  I  may  mention  two  or  three  who  have 
departed,  Cornelius  R.  Agnew,  Elbert  B.  Mon- 
roe, and  William  F.  Lee  of  New  York  city,  and 
in  the  larger  work  for  young  men  in  the  United 
States  and  the  British  Provinces  and  in  Europe, 
men  like  John  S.  Maclean  of  Halifax,  H.  Thane 
Miller  of  Cincinnati,  and  William  Edwyn  Shipton 

66 


of  London.  I  may  say  this,  that  others  whom 
I  have  not  mentioned  were  not  inferior  to  those 
I  have  named.  What  a  school  he  attended  in 
those  earlier  days.  The  educational  power  of 
these  long  discussions  of  principles,  of  methods, 
of  ways  and  means,  the  interviews  with  gentle- 
men whom  it  was  hoped  might  be  interested, 
can  hardly  be  overestimated.  Few  men  ever 
attended  so  complete  an  institution  for  instruc- 
tion in  the  qualities  and  powers  which  Mr. 
McBumey  thereafter  exhibited  in  such  effective 
fullness. 

Added  to  this,  he  grew  steadily  and  rapidly  to 
be  a  large  and  general  reader.  He  was  not 
systematic  in  this.  Indeed  he  would  be  called 
a  miscellaneous  reader — novels,  travels,  history, 
polemics,  poetry,  and  especially  hymns.  Nor 
did  he  neglect  either  religious  or  secular  news- 
papers. Not  only  did  he  read  consecutively, 
but  he  also  read  by  scraps.  He  could  save  a 
few  minutes  wherever  he  might  tarry  by  read- 
ing the  book  which  was  just  at  his  hand,  and 
in  all  he  was  attentive  to  what  he  was  doing. 
His  thought  and  his  retentive  faculty  were  alive. 
Especially  did  he  read  carefully  in  respect  of  his 
various  journeys  in  Europe  and  in  the  Holy 
Land.  He  was  fully  equipped  in  this  regard  to 
make  his  travels  useful  to  himself  and  also  con- 
tributors to  his  general  stock  of  available  knowl- 
edge. 

Finally,  and  as  most  important,  was  his 
thorough  and  continued  and  prayerful  study  of 
the  Bible.  Those  who  attended  his  Bible  class 
know  how  well  he  was  prepared  to  meet  them. 
He  did  not  confine  his  study  to  what  I  may  call  the 
stock  or  common  expositions  of  the  Scriptures. 
He  compared  Scripture  with  Scripture,  he  com- 
pared the  orthodox  view  with  the  view  of  the 

67 


extremist  on  the  one  side  or  the  other ;  and  a 
part  of  his  study  was  the  geography  of  the 
country,  the  times  in  which  the  Scriptures  were 
written,  and  the  people  and  things  which  per- 
tained to  those  times,  the  modes  of  thought,  the 
habits  and  customs  as  disclosed  by  modern 
research ;  so  that  in  fact  few  men,  even  in  the 
clerical  profession,  were  so  completely  in  pos- 
session of  adequate  knowledge  for  personal 
profit  or  for  the  instruction  of  others  as  was  Mr. 
McBurney.  In  this  study  he  was  brought  in 
contact  with  the  best  thought,  with  the  best 
language,  and  the  highest  purposes  of  the  times, 
and  so  he  became  broad  and  wise,  as  he  was 
devoted,  devout  and  earnest.  True,  he  accepted 
the  Scriptures  as  the  Word  of  God,  but  with  no 
blind  or  unchallenging  faith,  for  all  assaults 
upon  that  Word  he  tested  and  weighed,  but  the 
result  was  still  unshaken  faith,  unwavering 
confidence,  and  unyielding  trust.  In  all,  through 
all,  and  over  all,  was  his  personal  faith  and  per- 
sonal love  for  God,  for  his  Son,  and  his  personal 
faith  and  belief  in  the  power,  the  pervasive 
and  constant  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He 
believed  in  prayer  and  in  answer  to  prayer,  and 
he  knew  whereof  he  believed.  He  was  constant 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  to  the  purpose 
and  aim  of  his  life,  the  advancement  of  the  cause 
of  Christ  among  young  men. 

Now,  to  realize,  if  I  may,  the  wishes  of  Mr. 
McBurney  in  regard  to  this  service,  let  me  say 
that  I  have  disclosed  nothing  in  these  observa- 
tions to  dishearten  any  young  man,  or  any  older 
man,  but  much  that  ought  to  encourage  every 
one,  because,  in  respect  of  these  things,  all  start 
practically  from  the  same  level.  There  was 
nothing  in  his  career,  nothing  in  his  success, 
nothing  in   the   affection  with  which  he   was 

68 


regarded,  nothing  in  the  sense  of  loss  which  we 
feel,  but  what  may  be  the  part  and  share  of  us 
all.  True,  his  was  an  illustrious  career.  At 
the  end  he  stood,  by  the  universal  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  associates  in  the  secretaryship  the 
world  over,  their  chief.  True  he  had  wrought 
great  things,  true  he  carried  heavy  burdens, 
experienced  great  trials,  overcame  great  difficul- 
ties and  obstacles,  had  warm  and  earnest  con- 
tention, but  at  sixty-one,  after  more  than  thirty- 
six  years  of  service  in  the  public  eye  in  this 
mighty  city,  he  died  without  an  enemy,  with 
friends  without  number  here  in  our  own  country 
and  in  every  other  land  where  the  name  of  these 
associations  is  known.  As  years  increased  his 
cares  and  burdens  multiplied ;  social  life,  in  its 
best  sense,  attracted  him;  great  philanthropic 
interests — which  had  for  him  infinite  charm — 
solicited  his  attention ;  business,  which  he  tried 
for  a  short  time  after  becoming  secretary,  called 
him ;  but  at  all  times  this  institution  of  his  early 
love  had  his  first  and  best  thought,  his  untiring 
effort,  and  his  unabated  affection.  To  this 
association,  in  all  the  multiplying  forms  of  its 
work,  he  was  faithful  unto  death. 

Calmly,  with  love  for  all,  with  no  sadness  of 
farewell  to  those  who  were  dear  to  him,  with 
hope  that  was  bright  for  the  future,  with  faith 
that  did  not  falter,  he  said  "good-by"  for  a  little 
time,  with  his  face  set,  as  was  the  face  of  Mr. 
Standfast,  toward  the  celestial  gate ;  looking  to 
the  meeting  with  those  loved  ones  who  had  gone 
before,  believing  in  the  meeting  by  and  by  with 
those  he  was  leaving  behind  him,  sure  of  the 
welcome  "Well  done."     Now  he — 


....   wears  the  crown 
Of  full  and  everlasting 
And  passionless  renown." 


69 


The  resolution  presented  by  Mr.  Root  was 
unanimously  adopted. 

In  closing  the  service  Mr.  Dodge  said : — 

I  trust  we  have  not  done  to-day  what  our  dear 
friend  McBumey  would  have  wished  undone. 
He  was  so  modest ;  he  desired  that  there  might 
be  nothing  said  about  him  publicly  and  no  meet- 
ing held ;  and  when  he  was  told  that  there  would 
certainly  be  a  memorial  service,  all  he  wanted 
was  that  such  a  meeting  should  be  a  new  inspira- 
tion of  loyalty  to  this  work  and  to  the  personal 
work  of  winning  souls  to  Christ.  We  could 
have  no  better  inspiration  to  such  loyalty  and 
such  work  than  the  story  of  the  life  which  has 
been  an  object  lesson  to  us  all. 

There  was  not  a  bit  of  selfishness  in  his 
nature ;  but  I  can  imagine  that  if  he  ever  had  a 
selfish  wish  it  was  that  if  he  went  into  the 
heavenly  home  he  should  not  go  alone.  All  of 
us,  I  believe,  hope  that  we  are  going  to  that 
heavenly  home.  Shall  we  go  alone,  or  shall  we 
find  those  waiting  for  us  and  following  us  whom 
we  have  led  to  the  Father's  house? 


VII.       THE     MEMORIAL. 

Mr.  Dodge,  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
resolution  adopted  at  the  memorial  meeting, 
subsequently  appointed  the  memorial  com- 
mittee. 

After  careful  deliberation  this  committee 
issued  the  following  decision  concerning  the 
proposed  memorial: — 

70 


During  the  last  years  of  his  life  Mr.  McBumey  was 
absorbingly  occupied  in  promoting  the  erection  and 
equipment  of  the  association  building  of  the  West  Side 
branch.  In  itself  an  embodiment  of  all  that  was  wisest 
and  best  in  the  work  for  young  men  which  he  had  been 
accomplishing  during  the  many  years  of  his  active  con- 
nection with  the  association,  this  building,  with  its 
admirable  equipment,  stands  as  the  most  fitting  memo- 
rial of  his  life  work.  His  deepest  solicitude  at  the  time 
he  was  taken  ill  related  to  removing  the  floating  indebt- 
edness on  the  building,  then  amounting  to  $77,500. 

A  beautiful  lot  in  Woodlawn  cemetery  was  procured 
for  the  association  through  Mr.  McBumey' s  efforts,  and 
was  part  of  the  blessed  ministry  to  young  men  in  which 
he  spent  his  life.  Here  have  been  already  interred 
several  young  men  for  whom,  as  strangers,  the  associa- 
tion cared  in  their  last  sickness ;  and  here  Mr.  McBumey 
desired  to  be  buried.  No  monument  has  yet  been 
erected  on  this  spot. 

The  committee  believe  that  the  most  fitting  memorial 
of  Mr.  McBumey  that  his  friends  and  associates  could 
provide  would  consist  of — 

First.  The  complete  removal  of  the  floating  indebted- 
ness upon  the  West  Side  association  building,  amount- 
ing to  $77,500. 

Second.  The  placing  in  a  prominent  place  in  that 
building  of  a  memorial  tablet  bearing  the  name  of  Mr. 
McBumey  and  a  simple  inscription  concerning  his  rela- 
ti'jii  to  that  building  and  to  the  work  of  the  association 
for  which  it  stands. 

Third.  The  erection  upon  the  association  lot  in 
Woodlawn  of  a  simple  and  appropriate  monument  bear- 
ing his  name. 

Fourth.     The  preparation  of  a  memorial  volume. 

The  committee  have  accordingly  decided  upon  secur- 
ing the  sum  of  $81,000,  which  careful   estimate   shows 

71 


will  be  required  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  fourfold 
memorial  which  has  been  described. 

William  E.  Dodge,  Chairman; 
Cephas  Brainerd, 
Morris  K.  Jesup, 
M.  Taylor  Pyne, 
James  Stokes, 
Samuel  Thorne, 
Cornelius  Vanderbilt, 
Richard  C.  Morse,  Secretary. 
April  29,  1899. 

The  sum  of  money  required  to  complete  the 
proposed  memorial  was  happily  secured,  and 
as  one  part  of  it  the  present  volume  has  been 
prepared  for  publication. 


/2 


CABLE  MESSAGES,  LETTERS, 
AND  OTHER  TESTI- 
MONIES 


The  following  cablegrams  were  received  as 
soon  as  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Mr. 
McBumey  reached  association  friends  in 
Europe : 

From  Sir  George  Williams,  president  and 
founder  of  the  London  association: 

December  30,  1898. 
"British    Young    Men's   Christian  Associations  send 
heartfelt  sympathy.     Our  loss  McBumey 's  gain." 

From  Messrs.  W.  H.  Mills,  secretary  of  the 
English  National  Council,  and  J.  H.  Putterill, 
secretary  of  the  London  association : 

December  29,  1898. 
"Deepest  sympathy  from  English   National  Council 
and  London  Central  association." 

From  Mr.  E.  Buscarlet,  president  of  the  Paris 
association : 

December  29,  1898. 
' '  Deeply  mourning  the  loss  of  McBumey,  Paris  sends 
greeting  and  sympathy  to  the  New  York  association." 

73 


From  Mr.  E.  Sautter,  secretary  of  the  French 
National  Committee: 

December  29,  1898. 
"  Deeply  impressed  with  the  loss  of  McBumey.    Weep- 
ing with  you. " 

From  Professor  Edouard  Barde  and  Mr.  Charles 
Fermaud,  chairman  and  secretary  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  World's  Conference,  located 
at  Geneva,  Switzerland : 

December  30,  1898. 
"Deepest  sympathy.     Revelation  xiv:  13.     Blessed  are 
the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord:  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that 
they  may  rest  from  their  labors;   and  their  works  do 
follow  them. " 


From   Lord   Kinnaird,    vice  president  of    the 
English  National  Council : 

"The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  of  America 
and  indeed  of  the  whole  world  have  suffered  a  tremen- 
dous loss  in  the  death  of  Mr.  McBumey.  We  on  this 
side  join  with  you  in  sorrowing  that  our  work  has  lost 
such  a  stimulus  and  our  young  men  such  a  friend.  He 
was  certainly  a  wonderful  man  and  will  be  terribly 
missed." 

The  secretary  of  the  London  association  writes : 
' '  Much  as  the  American  brethren  loved  and  respected 
him,  their  affection  and  admiration  could  not  exceed  that 
felt  towards  him  by  the  many  brother  secretaries  and 
others  with  whom  he  was  intimately  acquainted  in  this 
country." 

The  Editor  of   The  Guide,  Glasgow,  Scotland, 
writes : 
"  Twenty  years  ago,  I  gave  a  letter  of  introduction 
to  two  young  men  on  their  way  to  Philadelphia  via  New 

74 


York.  Not  long  after  their  arrival  they  wrote  in  warm 
words  of  thanks  of  their  cordial  reception  by  Mr.  McBur- 
ney.  He  talked  and  had  prayer  with  them.  But  after 
they  had  left  his  room  he  ran  after  them  to  ask  if  they 
had  need  of  money.  They  were  deeply  touched  by  his 
loving  regard.  This  is  only  a  typical  example  of  the 
reception  which  thousands  of  young  men  have  received 
during  all  the  years  of  his  service. " 

From  a  young  banker  in  one  of  the  capitals  of 
Europe,  who  spent  the  early  years  of  his 
business  life  in  New  York : 
' '  Often  of  late  years  have  I  thought  of  my  good  friend 
in  New  York,  Mr.  McBumey,  who  in  the  dizziness  of  my 
first  steps  in  New  York,  took  me  by  the  hand  and  cared 
for  me  like  a  father  for  his  boy.     What  sweet  memories 
of  pleasant  hours  spent  with  him,  when  he  would  kindly 
take  the  trouble  to  chat  with  my  broken  English.     We 
used  to  go  together  to  some  very  plain  restaurant  and 
partake  of  a  simple  meal.     And  I  am  only  one  of  thou- 
sands of  young  men  who  have  shared  in  this  same  good- 
ness of  his  wide-open  heart !  " 

From  the  secretary  of  the  Stockholm  associa- 
tion : 

' '  His  last  letter  to  me  from  the  sanitarium,  a  little 
while  before  his  death,  I  will  keep  as  a  precious  remem- 
brance of  this  dear  friend  to  whom  I  owe  so  much  for 
his  personal  kindness  and  for  the  valuable  instruction  in 
association  work  which  he  gave  me  during  my  never  to 
be  forgotten  stay  in  your  hospitable  country.  He  did  a 
great  work  and  we  have  sufifered  a  great  loss." 

From  a  missionary  in  Brazil : 

• '  For  three  years  my  desk  in  the  office  of  the  New 
York  association  was  nearest  to  his  own.  I  learned  to 
know  and  to  love  him  as  few  of  the  other  assistants  did, 

75 


for  those  were  days  of  rapid  changes  in  the  assistant  sec- 
retaryship. As  fast  as  men  were  trained,  they  would 
be  called  to  other  fields  and  larger  opportunities,  and 
Mr.  McBumey  was  never  unwilling  to  yield  them,  though 
it  entailed  much  additional  work  on  himself.  He  has 
remained  to  me  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  worker.  There 
may  be  other  counselors  as  wise  as  he  was,  as  brilliant 
organizers,  as  efficient  administrators  and  as  loyal  lead- 
ers ;  but  I  fear  there  never  will  be  one  who  will  combine 
all  of  these  valuable  qualifications  in  so  marked  a  degree 
as  Mr.  McBumey  did,  coupled  with  a  genuine  love  for 
young  men,  as  sympathetic  as  a  woman's,  as  true  as  steel, 
and  as  enduring  as  only  his  can  be  who  has  been  planted 
on  the  everlasting  rock  and  walks  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
Master." 

One   of    the    international    secretaries   on    the 
foreign  field  writes  from  Rio  de  Janeiro: 

' '  As  one  of  the  thousands  of  young  men  upon  whom 
the  loving  interest  of  Mr.  McBumey  had  a  beneficial 
effect,  I  desire  to  put  on  record  my  sense  of  personal 
loss  at  his  death.  His  influence  on  the  lives  of  the 
younger  men  in  the  secretaryship  has  often  been  remarked 
upon,  and  I  am  one  of  those  who  owe  much  to  his  kind 
and  loving  personality.  When  first  considering  my  call 
to  the  foreign  field,  Mr.  McBumey' s  letters  did  much  to 
strengthen  me,  and  to  make  clear  the  path  of  God's 
leading.  Later,  when  in  Kansas  City  in  1890,  I  shall 
never  forget  the  day  I  received  a  telegram  from  Mr. 
McBurney  from  Denver,  asking  me  to  meet  him  at  the 
railroad  station  as  he  passed  through  on  his  way  east. 
His  kind  words,  full  of  a  loving,  personal  interest  in  me, 
helped  me  to  a  decision  at  the  most  important  crisis  of 
my  life.  When  in  New  York,  on  two  different  occasions, 
preparatory  to  coming  out  to  Brazil,  I  had  occasion  to 
profit  by  friendly  intercourse  and  conference  with  Mr. 
McBumey.     One  remembrance  I  highly  prize  is  that  of 

76 


an  invitation  to  the  'tower  room,'  whose  very  atmos- 
phere seemed  charged  with  association  history  and  a 
pervading  love  of  young  men.  There  I  spent  some 
hours  in  delightful  conversation,  receiving  instruction 
and  counsel  of  untold  value  to  a  young  secretary  about 
to  undertake  a  pioneer  work  on  the  foreign  field.  I  shall 
never  forget  our  prayer  together  in  that  tower  room. 
Later,  in  the  midst  of  difficult  problems  on  the  field  and 
altogether  isolated  from  helpful  associates  or  colleagues, 
Mr.  McBumey's  letters,  as  chairman  of  the  international 
committee's  sub-committee  on  foreign  work,  were  full  of 
helpfulness,  while  at  the  same  time  the  personal  element 
in  the  letters  was  always  of  great  comfort  and  encour- 
agement." 

From  Adelaide,  Australia : 

•'  The  association  board  sends  expression  of  its  sense 
of  loss  sustained  in  the  removal  of  Robert  McBumey. " 

From  the  general  secretary  of  the  association  in 
Sydney,  Australia: 

"Mr.  McBumey  was  a  great  and  good  man,  who  will- 
ingly gave  his  life  and  labors  for  the  good  of  young  men. 
Much  of  the  success  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation in  your  country  is  due  to  his  great  energy,  sound 
judgment,  and  common  sense.  He  will  be  greatly  missed 
and  we  in  this  far  off  land  join  with  the  hundreds  who 
mourn  the  loss  of  a  loved  friend  and  brother  and  yet 
rejoice  he  has  been  called  by  the  Master  to  his  reward." 

From  the  chairman  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  Maritime  Provinces  of  Canada  : 
' '  On  behalf  of  our  committee  I  beg  to  express  our 
regrets  at  not  being  able  to  send  a  representative  to  the 
memorial  services  on  Sunday  next  in  connection  with  the 
removal  by  death  of  Robert  R.  McBumey,  so  long  iden- 
tified with  the  work  in  New  York  city  and  as  a  leading 

77 


member  of  the  international  committee  so  well  known  to 
our  membership  in  Canada.  What  Mr.  McBumey  was 
privileged  to  do  for  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion in  the  earlier  days  of  its  history  is  known  to  few, 
but  that  the  present  position  of  the  organization  in  your 
city  and  on  this  continent  is  in  a  large  measure  due  to 
his  earnest  self-denying  labors  is  known  to  all  who  are 
identified  with  the  work." 

From  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Harailton, 
Canada,  Young  Men's  Christian  Association : 

"The  sympathy  of  our  association  is  extended  to  the 
associations  of  New  York  city  upon  the  death  of  their 
late  general  secretary,  Mr.  Robert  R.  McBumey.  The 
association  world  will  miss  his  wise  counsel  and  kindly 
direction.  To  him  the  associations  owe  much  for  their 
present  strong  and  influential  position,  and  our  prayer  is 
that  God,  who  in  his  wisdom  removed  our  brother,  may 
raise  up  another  leader  to  take  his  place. " 

From  the  association  board  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y. : 

* '  The  cause  of  young  men  throughout  this  and  other 
lands  has  met  with  a  great  loss.  We  also  owe  him  a 
debt  of  gratitude  for  his  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  his 
unselfish  regard  for  us  in  our  local  work.  And  we  desire 
to  testify  from  a  personal  knowledge  of  his  great  worth, 
to  the  pure,  noble  and  Christian  life  he  has  led,  by  which 
he  has  endeared  himself  to  thousands  of  young  men  who 
have  been  made  the  better  by  his  having  lived. " 

A  leading  officer  in  the  New  York  association 
testifies : 
"  His  whole  thought  was  the  building  up  of  the  associ- 
ation, as  he  believed  with  intensity  and  singleness  of 
purpose  that  the  association  if  properly  developed  would 
prove  a  most  elevating  influence  upon  the  lives  of  young 
men,  as  well  as  a  most  powerful  help  to  the  church  of 

78 


Christ.  He  never  allowed  his  social  duties  or  pleasures 
to  interfere  with  his  work  for  the  association.  By  day 
and  in  the  evening,  and  sometimes  far  into  the  early 
morning,  he  toiled  at  the  task  he  had  set  before  himself. 
He  took  few  and  brief  vacations  and  always  seemed  to 
be  restless  and  unhappy  until  he  returned  to  his  labors. 
His  biography  is  therefore  written  in  the  history  of  the 
association." 

From  one  who  was  associated  with  him  in  the 
work  of  his  office : 

•♦  When  our  three  dear  children  died  of  diphtheria  sud- 
denly in  1877,  he  supervised  the  arrangements  for  the 
funeral  and  showed  us  a  sympathy  and  gave  us  a  help- 
ing hand  that  time  nor  distance  can  blot  out  of  our 
memory.  He  has  left  an  inspiration  to  every  one  who 
knew  him  intimately.  His  acts,  methods  and  personality 
are  indelibly  impressed  on  my  heart  and  mind.  Though 
seventeen  years  have  passed  since  I  spent  those  thirteen 
years  with  him  in  association  work  and  though  we  have 
not  met  during  this  period,  I  seem  to  see  him  to-day  more 
plainly  than  ever.  I  have  never  had  a  better  friend, 
counselor  and  brother." 

From  a  director  of  the  New  York  association : 

"No  one  can  ever  cope  with  him  in  the  extraordinary 
winsomeness  and  sweetness  of  his  character.  My  first 
impression  never  changed.  In  all  my  dealings  with  him 
I  never  saw  one  like  him  in  genuine  unaffected  worth." 

From  a  pastor  in  New  York : 

* '  I  shall  always  cherish  the  memory  of  that  great  and 
strong  man  of  God — my  more  than  friend — Robert  R. 
McBumey— of  whom  may  be  said  that  which  is  inscribed 
upon  the  memorial  of  '  Chinese  Gordon '  in  St.  Paul's 
cathedral,  London,  '  He  gave  his  substance  to  the  poor; 
his  strength  to  the  weak;  his  sympathy  to  the  suffering; 
his  heart  to  God.'" 

79 


From  a  former  vice  president  of  the  New  York 
association : 

' '  I  have  been  associated  with  that  exemplary  Christian 
and  talented  organizer  for  a  long  term  of  years.  Mr. 
McBurney's  death  comes  to  me  as  that  of  a  brother.  If 
it  may  be  said  of  any  one  that  he  has  gone  to  his  reward, 
it  may  be  surely  said  of  him. " 

From  a  former  associate  in  the  secretarial  office 
of  the  New  York  association : 

• '  There  are  many  who  have  known  Robert  McBumey 
longer  but  few  who  have  worked  side  by  side  with  him 
more  years  than  I  did.  As  I  think  of  those  years  I 
realize  how  much  I  owe  to  him  for  his  example  of 
humility  and  personal  devotion  to  unattractive  men, 
for  his  love  for  the  Bible  and  skill  in  its  practical  appli- 
cation to  men's  needs,  for  his  frank  criticisms,  sound  and 
wholesome  if  not  always  agreeable,  and  for  most  loving 
and  generous  kindness  to  me  and  mine  at  trying  hours 
in  our  family  life.  We  who  are  left  must  dedicate  our- 
selves afresh  to  that  work  for  young  men  in  which  he  has 
so  long  been  our  leader. ' ' 

From  a  teacher  and  trainer  of  secretaries : 

' '  I  was  a  young  secretary  at  the  secretaries'  conference, 
without  training,  greatly  impressed  with  the  knowledge 
and  dignity  of  the  g^eat  men  in  the  work,  wanting  to 
inquire  but  not  willing  to  be  heard.  Mr.  McBumey 
insisted  that  the  older  men  should  not  occupy  all  the  time 
but  that  the  secretaries  new  in  the  work  should  have 
plenty  of  time  to  ask  questions  or  even  talk  He  was 
such  a  friend  of  the  younger  men.  He  was  determined 
that  they  should  grow,  and  seemed  to  lose  himself  in  the 
very  endeavor  to  make  this  possible.  I  loved  the  man, 
and  though  never  associated  with  him  personally,  his  life 
had  a  marked  influence  on  mine." 

80 


One  of  his  associates  writes  as  an  eye-witness  of 
his  daily  work : 

"Young  men  were  quick  to  learn  how  genuine  and 
sincere  was  his  sympathy,  how  spontaneous  his  gener- 
osity, how  keen  his  insight,  how  wise  his  judgment,  and 
they  could  not  long  resist  the  power  of  his  love.  He 
seemed  bound  to  know  what  this  boy  did  yesterday,  what 
he  was  going  to  do  next,  to  learn  by  close  inquiry  his 
needs  and  to  supply  them  as  a  father  would.  To  be  sure 
he  never  saw  him  before,  but  here  he  was;— that  was 
enough.  The  greater  the  boy's  need,  the  deeper  was  his 
interest.  He  would  often  follow  a  young  man  to  the 
door  and  beyond,  as  if  he  could  not  bear  him  out  of  his 
sight.  Why  ?  Because  he  was  only  a  lad  and  a  stranger 
in  this  great  city.  Toward  such  his  heart  was  ever 
yearning." 

One  of  the  leaders  in  the  Student  Settlement 
Work  in  New  York  writes : 

•'  In  Mr.  McBumey's  death  I  realize  the  loss  of  a  per- 
sonal friend.  I  remember  well  meeting  him  first  on  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  of  his  to  Yale,  made  during  my  fresh- 
man year.  The  respect  which  I  conceived  for  him  at 
that  time  has  ever  remained.  During  my  college  life  and 
afterwards,  including  the  last  year,  I  often  went  to  him 
for  counsel  and  always  found  him  wise,  courageous  and 
helpful.  Intelligence  fired  by  steady  conviction  impressed 
me  as  his  most  remarkable  characteristic.  All  of  us  who 
admired  his  spirit  must  feel  that  an  added  responsibility 
is  placed  upon  us  to  work  harder  for  righteousness  and 
godliness  in  this  city  because  his  strong  influence  has 
departed,  except  as  those  who  have  felt  his  spirit  give 
worthy  expression  of  it." 

A  leader  for  many  years  in  the  student  associa- 
tion work  in  the  south  writes : 
"How  vividly  I  recall  my  first  meeting  with  our  ever 
8i 


loving  friend,  Robert  McBumey,  at  the  international  con- 
vention in  Atlanta  in  1875.  But  for  his  cordial  greeting 
and  hearty  welcome  I  would  have  continued  to  feel  out  of 
place  as  I  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  convention,  and 
would  have  returned  home  without  a  further  thought  or 
care  for  the  association  movement.  To  his  inspiration 
is  due  any  development  in  the  college  work  which  I  may 
have  initiated  or  sustained." 

A  very  aged  man  writes : 

"  His  kindness  of  heart  was  inexhaustible.  He  always 
impressed  me  as  being  deeply  and  truly  religious,  and 
was  so  morally  clean  and  spiritually  pure  that  it  was  a 
privilege  and  pleasure  to  have  one's  soul  close  to  his.  He 
was  refined,  gentle,  winning,  and  yet  thoroughly  manly. 
At  my  age,  over  eighty  years,  I  have  admired  a  number 
of  men,  but  I  loved  Mr.  McBurney.  During  nearly 
twenty  years'  service  under  him  I  came  to  know  him 
well,  saw  and  studied  his  nature;  in  fact,  this  great 
quality  of  manliness  was  mirrored  in  his  face.  I  never 
shall  forget  his  greeting  in  the  morning,  it  was  like  a 
benediction  that  lasted  the  whole  day." 

From  a  former  president  of  the  international 
convention : 

*'  He  was  a  useful  man,  wholly  given  over  to  the  pur- 
pose for  which  God  designed  him.  Of  him,  as  of  David, 
it  may  be  truthfully  said:  'He  served  his  own  genera- 
tion by  the  will  of  God. '  He  was  a  sincere  man,  trans- 
parent and  free  from  sham ;  he  actually  was  just  what 
he  professed  to  be.  He  was  a  man  of  stability  and 
therefore  strong;  nothing  was  permitted  to  divert  him 
from  the  definite  purpose  which  shaped  his  course  of  life. 
Because  of  these  characteristics  his  life  was  beautiful, 
with  a  beauty  not  of  mere  ornamentation,  but  with  the 
natural  and  proper  crown  to  the  superstructure  of  gold, 
silver  and  precious  stones  he  reared  in  life  upon  the 

82 


broad  and  secure  foundation  laid  for  him  in  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  he  loved  and  served. " 

Another    leader  in   the   American   association 
work  writes : 

••Mr.  McBumey's  life  has  been  a  benediction  to  every 
man  who  has  come  in  contact  with  him.  Manly,  noble, 
fearless,  pure,  tender,  strong,  and  loving,  his  life  has  not 
been  lived  in  vain.  Men  throughout  the  world  are  under 
a  debt  of  gratitude  to  him.  He  has  wrought  his  life  into 
theirs.  He  has  brought  a  supplemental  force  and  power 
to  struggling  lives.  His  plan,  his  ptupose,  his  mind  and 
heart  have  been  wrought  into  constitutions,  principles 
and  moving  powers  of  a  great  organization  which  is  now 
at  work  in  nearly  every  centre  of  young  men  in  the  civil- 
ized world." 

A  physician  in  New  Jersey,  who  was  in  1866  a 
medical  student  in  New  York,  writes : 
"  I  came  across  a  few  days  ago  the  original  draft  of  a 
constitution  that  he  and  I  as  a  committee  drew  up  in  the 
winter  of  1865-66  for  the  'Medical  Students'  Union.'  It 
is  mostly  in  his  handwriting.  He  was  always  reaching 
out  his  hand  of  help  toward  young  men  and  I  think  he 
originated  this  movement — possibly  the  beginning  of 
association  work  among  students  in  New  York  City.  I 
was  called  home  by  sickness  about  that  time  and  did  not 
return  that  winter,  so  did  not  follow  up  the  work  " 

From  a  pastor  in  Ohio  : 

"With  an  acquaintance  ntunbering  among  the  thou- 
sands, I  do  not  think  there  lives  the  man  who  knew  him 
who  would  not  have  a  kind  word  to  say  about  him  or 
some  tender  recollection  to  relate.  I  have  seen  him 
empty  his  bureau  of  his  best  clothing  for  an  apparently 
worthless,  drunken  tramp,  and  spend  his  last  cent  of 
ready  money  upon  him.  His  was  truly  a  great  heart. 
He  could  see  and  love  the  soul  hidden  in  the  drunken  sot. " 

83 


From  a  secretary  in  a  southern  city : 

"When  I  came  to  New  York  in  1888,  he  seemed  at 
once  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  me,  and  if  I  have  been 
of  any  service  to  the  association  cause,  it  is  largely  due, 
under  God,  to  the  thoughtful,  loving  kindness  shown 
me  by  Robert  McBumey,  not  only  in  those  early  days  of 
my  association  experience,  but  also  to  the  very  end  of 
his  life. " 

A  secretary  of  twenty  years*  experience  testi- 
fies: 
"The  first  time  I  ever  met  Mr.  McBumey  was  as  a 
delegate  to  a  state  convention.  He  asked  me  up  to  his 
room,  and  his  talk  with  me  gave  me  great  pleasure.  He 
was  very  kind,  and  I  think  the  reason  was  that  I  was 
unknown  and  obscure.  That  is  a  reason  somewhat  dif- 
ferent from  the  one  which  attracts  many  of  us  to  others. 
Since  then  we  have  been  closely  associated  for  many 
years.  Not  long  before  his  sickness  I  was  walking  with 
him  in  New  York  after  a  church  service  and  I  saw  a  sud- 
den light  come  into  his  face  as  he  met  a  young  man,  a 
student  from  Canada  who  was  just  going  home  to  visit 
his  friends.  I  never  saw  Mr.  McBumey  quite  so  happ}'- 
as  when  he  was  greeting  somebody  who  was  away  from 
home.  I  remember  vividly  what  he  said  that  day  turning 
to  me  as  we  left  his  friend:  '  That  young  man  is  going 
to  his  earthly  home,  but  I  am  going  to  my  heavenly 
home  very  soon.'     He  seemed  to  know  it  even  then." 

Another  secretary,  equally  as  long  in  the  work : 

"Mr.  McBumey  was  a  great  man.  He  was  great  by 
nature;  he  was  greater  far  by  grace.  Yet  the  finest 
thing  about  him  was  his  simplicity  and  modesty.  He 
was  never  spoiled  by  success  or  flattery.  He  was  the 
most  natural  man  I  ever  knew  in  my  life.  He  had  large 
business  responsibilities  resting  upon  him — larger  than 
those  of  any  local  secretary  in  this  countr>\     Yet  so  fvill 

84 


was  his  spiritual  life  that  they  never  checked  it.  The 
high  function  of  the  general  secretary  as  a  spiritual 
leader  of  young  men  he  felt  should  never  be  delegated 
into  other  hands.  He  magnified  his  office.  He  illus- 
trated it  and  made  it  honorable.  He  was  supremely  a 
spiritual  worker.  He  was  in  his  office  to  lead  men  to 
Jesus  Christ.  He  could  not  be  institutionalized.  In  the 
midst  of  all  his  varied  activities  he  remained  ever  the 
warm,  sympathetic,  devoted,  successful,  personal  worker, 
Bible  teacher  and  spiritual  leader." 

An  eminent  clergyman,  who  was  for  some  years 

associated  with  him  in  the  office  of  the  New 

York  association,  writes: 

"Robert  R.  McBumey  was  my  most  intimate  friend 

for  thirty  years  and  I  loved  him  as  a  brother  loves.     He 

mastered  the  lessons  of  love  and  put  the  courage  that 

hopeth  all  things  into  thousands  of  hearts.     To  those 

who  loved  him  the  world  will  always  be  a  richer  place 

because  of  his  life,  and  another  deep  affection  will  make 

the  life  to  which  he  has  gone  nearer  and  dearer." 

An  experienced  secretary  writes: 

"Mr.  McBumey's  helpful  suggestions,  words  of  encour- 
agement and  prayers  for  guidance  in  my  first  field  of 
association  effort  exerted  a  lasting  influence  upon  my 
life." 

The  president  of    the    St.    Louis    association 
writes : 

"For  twenty  years  I  have  admired,  respected  and 
loved  Robert  McBumey.  Next  to  his  good  judgment 
and  piety  I  have  been  impressed  by  his  gentle  and 
thoughtful  consideration  for  those  who  were  young  in 
the  work.  In  this  he  excelled  all  the  men  I  have  ever 
known.     The  next  thing   that  impressed  me  was  his 

85 


genuine  interest  in  young  men.  I  feel  his  death  as  a 
personal  loss  and  I  am  certain  this  feeling  is  shared  by- 
thousands." 

A  clergyman — one  of  the  many  fellow  workers 
associated  with  him  for  some  years — writes : 

"  It  is  not  difficult  to  enumerate  Mr.  McBumey's  excel- 
lences of  heart  and  mind;  his  wondrous  capacity  for 
loving  men,  his  fine  executive  ability,  his  tenacity  of 
purpose,  his  intuition,  almost  womanly,  in  seizing  on 
and  developing  the  good  which  he  was  so  quick  to  dis- 
cover in  others,  his  great  reverence  for  the  Scriptures, 
his  delight  in  social  converse  on  high  themes  and  in 
prajring  with  his  friends  in  the  old  •  tower  room,'  which 
is  a  sanctuary  in  the  memory  of  so  many  who  knew  him, 
his  deep  loyalty  to  our  Saviour  and  his  never  wavering 
hope  for  mankind  through  the  practical  preaching  of 
Christ.  When  God  gave  me  a  son  I  named  him  Robert 
McBumey,  and  I  have  no  higher  aspiration  for  my  boy 
than  that  he  may  resemble  our  friend  in  character.  He 
was  the  cleanest  man  I  ever  knew.  An  impure  word 
was  like  a  blow.  How  he  rejoiced  in  getting  a  man 
away  from  evil  associations,  and  teaching  him  by  his  own 
example,  as  well  as  by  precept,  the  worth  of  purity  and 
truth  and  honor." 

One  of  the  strongest  among  the  association  sec- 
retaries writes : 

' '  At  my  first  secretaries'  conference  I  was  a  stranger 
to  nearly  every  one,  feeling  lonely  and  isolated.  But 
there  was  one  man  there  who  seemed  to  take  an  especial 
interest  in  me.  Well  do  I  remember  how  he  took  me  by 
the  arm  and  walked  me  about  the  streets  for  a  couple  of 
hours  while  he  plied  me  with  questions  about  my  life 
work  and  gave  counsel  such  as  one  rarely  receives  from 
his  dearest  friends.  Mr.  McBumey  was  the  one  who 
thus  went  out  of  his  way  to  make  the  intimate  acquaint- 

86 


ance  of  one  who  was  a  stranger.  For  what  a  multitude 
of  young  men  has  he  performed  the  same  loving  ser- 
vice ! " 

Another  veteran  leader  among  the  secretaries 
writes : 
'•He  entered  upon  the  secretaryship  without  educa- 
tion or  experience  and  grew  with  its  growth  in  all 
necessary  equipment.  He  began  his  work  as  a  stripling 
and  finished  as  a  giant.  He  trained  with  the  chief  men 
of  the  association  movement  at  home  and  abroad  in  their 
march  to  victory  and  fell  at  the  head  of  the  column.  He 
denied  himself  a  home  of  his  own  to  serve  with  single- 
ness of  purpose  the  young  men  of  his  generation.  To 
almost  all  kinds  of  philanthropic  and  Christian  endeavor 
he  lent  a  helping  hand,  but  the  work  in  which  he  most 
served  the  Master  and  his  church  was  that  of  the  associ- 
tion,  and  as  long  as  that  organization  lives  and  works  for 
young  men  the  name  of  Robert  McBumey  will  be  held 
in  blessed  memory." 

One  of  his  oldest  associates  in  the  secretaryship 

writes : 
"He  was  a  master  of  the  principles  which  underlie 
and  promote  the  life  and  usefulness  of  the  association. 
He  knew  the  rocks  of  danger  and  how  to  avoid  them. 
There  was  an  entire  absence  of  the  air  of  officialism  in 
his  intercourse  with  young  men.  His  peculiarities, 
instead  of  detracting  from  him,  seemed  to  add  interest  to 
his  personality.  He  was  a  man  of  culture  and  had  read 
extensively.  His  library  was  large  and  well  chosen.  I 
never  heard  him  in  any  of  his  addresses  use  a  single 
word  of  slang.     He  despised  it. " 

The  chairman  of   the  international  committee 
writes: 
' '  No   single  city  could  circumscribe   the  field  of  his 
activity.     The  problems  he  wrought  out  in  New  York 

87 


became  object  lessons  to  the  associations  of  the  entire 
continent.  His  figure  and  voice  were  familiar  for  over 
thirty  years  in  the  frequent  conventions  of  our  states  and 
continent,  and  his  influence  was  everywhere  felt  in  pro- 
moting the  progress  and  shaping  the  policy  of  the  asso- 
ciations. All  who  came  in  contact  with  Mr.  McBumey 
as  a  fellow  worker  learned  to  love  and  admire  him.  His 
life  and  example  are  a  rich  heritage  to  the  entire  associ- 
ation movement,  and  his  death  has  come  as  a  personal 
bereavement  to  many  thousands  of  those  who  have 
known  and  loved  him." 

Another  veteran  in  the  secretaryship  and  an 
intimate  friend  says: 

"  He  was,  in  the  best  and  highest  sense  of  the  words, 
a  spiritually  minded  man;  genuinely  and  sincerely  such. 
I  never  knew  any  one  more  so.  He  exercised  the  utmost 
charity  in  his  judgment  of  his  fellowmen.  Strong  in  his 
own  convictions  and  character,  he  had  the  most  humble 
opinion  of  his  own  attainments  and  thus  was  able  to 
bear  with  patience  the  weaknesses  and  failings  of  others. 
His  love  and  reverence  for  the  Word  of  God  was  deep 
and  constant,  permeating  and  controlling  all  his  thought. 
Great  as  was  the  work  he  accomplished,  greater  still  was 
the  man  behind  it.  It  is  not  for  what  he  did  but  for 
what  he  was  I  shall  most  miss  him." 

Another  who  had  known  him  many  years  says : 

• '  The  sweetness  that  can  come  into  a  life  of  loneliness 
is  to  me  one  of  the  marked  lessons  of  Mr.  McBumey's 
life.  He  came  from  across  the  sea  alone.  He  lived  in  a 
little  tower  room  alone,  and  even  as  death  drew  near 
there  was  no  wife,  no  brother,  no  sister,  no  one  of  earthly 
kin  with  him.  But  through  all  that  life  of  loneliness  the 
great  heart  of  love  was  poured  into  the  lives  of  others. 
The  loneliness  of  his  own  life  did  not  make  him  misan- 
thropic. It  made  him  philanthropic  and  his  heart  was 
ever  going  out  to  others." 


A  state  secretary  says: 

"The  best  time  for  me  to  get  his  counsel  during  his 
busy  days  and  years  was  in  the  morning.  I  would  go  to 
his  tower  room — not  too  early — and  while  he  was  dressing 
and  shaving,  his  mind  was  free  and  comparatively  unoc- 
cupied. As  I  reported  the  work  and  took  counsel  with 
him  he  would  often  get  very  indignant  and  storm  about 
the  f oolhardiness  and  foolishness  of  certain  people ;  and 
yet  it  would  end  in  his  sitting  down,  taking  up  his  little 
Bible  to  read  his  morning  lesson,  and  then  praying  for 
these  very  men  he  had  been  storming  about!  " 

One   of    the   strongest   and   ablest   association 
leaders  during  the  past  thirty  years  says : 

"I  went  to  my  first  international  convention  in  1868  at 
Detroit,  as  one  of  a  large  and  strong  delegation  from  a 
leading  city  of  the  central  west.  The  proposition  to 
adopt  the  evangelical  test  of  active  membership  was 
brought  up.  I  had  been  an  active  member  before  I 
became  a  Christian  and  I  went  to  the  convention  to 
oppose  the  adoption  of  the  test  suggested  as  strongly  as 
I  knew  how.  Mr.  McBumey  heard  of  this  somehow  and 
got  a  member  of  the  New  York  delegation  to  have  a  talk 
with  me.  They  both  went  over  the  whole  subject  with 
me  and  so  impressed  all  the  delegates  from  our  city  that 
we  stood  behind  the  New  York  delegates  and  shouted 
with  them  and  kept  still  when  they  kept  still ! 

The  next  year  at  the  Portland  Convention  I  served  on 
one  of  the  committees.  I  met  Mr.  McBumey  in  connec- 
tion with  my  committee  work  and  had  a  chance  to  per- 
ceive how  it  was  that  he  ran  the  convention. 

"Soon  after  my  return  I  was  inveigled  into  the  secre- 
taryship of  the  association  in  our  city.  I  had  a  supreme 
contempt  for  the  association  secretaryship,  but  I  was 
persuaded  it  was  my  Christian  duty  to  take  it.  So  I 
took  it  and  did  the  best  I  could. 

"  Some  years  later  at  the  opening  of   another  inter- 

89 


national  convention  Mr.  McBumey  came  to  me  and 
said  that  a  delegation  from  one  section  of  the  country- 
wanted  to  make  their  leader  president  of  the  convention. 
•  It  will  never  do,'  he  added,  '  for  him  to  hold  that  posi- 
tion here. '  We  decided  that  a  delegate,  who,  while  we 
were  speaking,  was  still  on  his  way  to  the  convention 
from  another  section  of  the  country,  was  the  man  for 
president.  Now  so  far  as  I  know,  Mr.  McBumey,  one 
other  delegate  and  myself  were  the  only  ones  in  the  con- 
vention who  knew  this  man.  But  he  was  enthusiastic- 
ally elected  and  Mr.  McBurney's  was  the  influence  that 
accomplished  it." 

A  secretary  for  more  than  twenty  years  says  : 

"My  business  engagement  in  a  small  town  near  New 
York  ended  in  February,  1877,  and  soon  after  I  called  on 
Mr.  McBumey  in  his  office.  He  greeted  me  very  warmly 
as  I  came  in,  but  as  we  have  often  seen  him  do,  he  went 
on  with  his  writing  while  I  went  on  to  tell  my  story.  I 
said:  '  I  have  come  to  inquire  what  I  had  better  do  to 
prepare  myself  for  the  secretaryship,'  (This  occurred 
many  years  before  the  secretarial  training  schools  were 
founded.)  'Why,'  said  he,  'you  have  not  given  up 
your  business,  have  you? '  When  I  replied  that  I  had, 
he  said,  'You  are  a  fool.'  But  when  we  had  talked 
further  no  man  could  have  been  more  cordial  than  he, 
and  he  proposed  to  me  to  go  first  of  all  to  the  Bowery 
branch.  Years  after  he  told  me  that  what  most 
impressed  him  at  our  first  meeting  was  my  great  awk- 
wardness and  how  little  I  seemed  to  have  of  qualification 
for  the  secretaryship.  I  do  not  recollect  my  first  meeting 
with  him  in  his  tower  room.  But  I  have  been  there  many 
times.  There  was  always  room  for  me  there  when  I 
came  to  town,  and  many  nights  I  have  spent  on  his 
ample  lounge-bed,  and  shall  never  forget  his  conversa- 
tions before  retiring  and  again  in  the  morning  and  our 
prayers  together,  for  I  always  felt  stronger  after  pra5dng 
with  him." 

90 


Another  veteran  secretary  with  whom  he  was 
often  closely  associated  says : 

'  •  Mr.  McBumey  and  I  often  disagreed.  I  think  that 
was  one  reason  why  we  loved  each  other  so  much.  It 
used  to  frighten  me  to  see  him  come  into  a  church 
meeting  where  I  was  going  to  speak.  I  never  could 
quite  account  for  it,  because  I  believed  in  his  genuine- 
ness and  sympathy.  But  later  all  this  embarrassment 
passed  away.  I  was  always  impressed  with  the  very 
deep  seriousness  of  his  religious  life.  I  never  went  on 
an  outing  with  him  until  some  years  ago.  One  reason 
was  that  neither  of  us  was  quite  sure  it  would  be  agree- 
able !  Finally  we  did  go  and  I  was  fearful  that  as  the 
younger  man  I  would  find  it  hard  to  make  it  pleasant  for 
him.  But  instead  of  finding  him  exacting  I  found  it 
hard  to  make  him  appropriate  his  share  of  anything ;  he 
was  so  unselfish." 

From  one  of  the  younger  secretaries : 

'  •  I  first  met  Mr.  McBumey  when  1  was  conducting  my 
first  boys'  meeting  in  a  small  city.  A  man  came  into 
the  room  quietly,  whom  I  did  not  know  until  after  the 
meeting  to  be  Mr.  McBumey.  I  was  at  once  impressed 
with  his  great  sympathy  and  love  for  boys  by  the  way  he 
got  hold  of  the  hands  of  those  little  fellows  and  seemed 
so  much  interested  in  every  one  of  them.  Later,  as  I 
came  to  know  him  better,  I  was  impressed  more  than 
anything  else  with  the  deep  prayer  life  of  the  man. 
Dozens  of  times  when  I  have  been  in  his  office  he  prac- 
ticed and  urged  praying  about  the  problems  in  our 
work.  Another  trait  of  his  was  the  dispatch  with  which 
he  could  get  rid  of  a  man  when  he  was  too  busy  to  give 
him  time.  He  could  shake  your  hand  and  shake  you 
out  of  the  office  at  the  same  time. " 

From  another : 
"  As  I  recall  my  feelings  towards  Mr.  McBurney  when 

91 


he  first  began  to  show  an  interest  in  me  I  can  easily 
understand  how  so  many  say  he  was  a  father  to  them. 
Not  having  any  children  of  his  own,  he  made  all  young 
men  children  to  himself.  He  saw  something  to  love  in 
many  young  fellows  whom  you  and  I  would  not  feel 
drawn  to  shake  hands  with  or  even  speak  to.  He  had  a 
knowledge  of  young  men's  hearts,  and  a  sympathy  with 
them  beyond  any  man  I  ever  met." 

A  very  clever  man  writes : 

' '  I  sat  behind  him  on  the  train  between  New  York  and 
New  Haven.  A  young  man  sat  down  in  the  seat  with 
him.  Mr.  McBumey  got  into  conversation  with  him. 
The  fellow  was  flippant,  but  without  the  least  break  or 
discontinuance  in  the  conversation  they  began  talking 
about  religion  in  a  personal  way,  the  fellow  stating  what 
he  thought  and  Mr.  McBurney  telling  what  he  thought. 
After  this  the  fellow  was  sobered.  It  was  plain  to  see 
that  the  older  man  wanted  to  be  in  relation  to  the  young 
man  on  this  most  important  subject.  I  understood  for 
the  first  time  what  genuine,  wise  personal  work  is. " 

One  of  the  younger  men  gives  the  following 
typical  experience : 
"It  was  at  a  conference  in  New  York  state.  I  was 
one  of  the  kids  in  the  work.  I  knew  him  well  by  repu- 
tation, but  did  not  know  him  as  a  man  approachable  by 
us  new  fellows.  After  one  of  the  sessions  he  passed  his 
arm  through  mine  and  said :  '  Let  us  take  a  walk. '  I 
was  in  the  seventh  heaven.  We  started  out  on  the  street 
that  led  to  the  lake.  He  did  not  say  anything  about 
association  work  but  pointed  to  noteworthy  objects.  He 
was  very  observant.  Then  he  switched  around  toward 
the  town.  We  got  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  china 
and  bric-a-brac  shops.  He  went  into  a  store  and  saw  an 
old  clock  that  pleased  him  very  much.  I  had  an  idea  he 
would  buy  it  if  he  got  the  right  price  on  it." 

92 


From  a  secretary  in  a  large  western  city : 

"I  had  just  entered  the  work,  knowing  almost  nothing 
about  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  feeling 
my  insignificance  as  never  before  in  my  life.  Passing 
through  New  York  I  visited  the  Twenty-third  Street 
branch  not  expecting  that  the  general  secretary  of  the 
New  York  association  would  pay  any  more  attention  to 
me  than  perhaps  to  say  'howdy'  I  met  him,  was  taken 
to  the  tower  room,  was  made  to  feel  that  he  had  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  me  and  that  I  was  his  brother.  He  took 
me  to  dinner  with  him  that  evening  and  introduced  me 
as  his  friend.  From  that  day  I  loved  Robert  McBumey. 
It  has  been  my  privilege  to  meet  him  often  since  my  first 
experience  with  him  fifteen  years  ago,  and  to  me  he  was 
always  the  same.  Never  too  busy  to  help  with  a  word 
of  advice  or  encouragement. " 

From  another: 

"  The  last  public  meeting  he  ever  addressed  was  the 
young  men's  meeting  at  Harlem  branch,  New  York,  the 
third  Sunday  in  December,  1897.  Throughout  the  address 
he  seemed  to  feel  that  his  work  was  nearly  done,  and  I 
shall  never  forget  how  he  told  the  story  of  the  gospel 
and  pleaded  with  men  to  give  their  hearts  and  lives  to 
Christ.  Three  or  four  responded  to  this  appeal  and  gave 
good  evidence  of  radical  change.  Through  all  the  ser- 
vice he  seemed  to  desire  that  every  word  should  count. " 

One   in   the   front  rank  of   veteran  secretaries 
writes  : 

"  Well  do  I  remember  the  first  time  I  met  dear  Robert 
McBumey.  It  was  in  1873,  at  the  Poughkeepsie  confer- 
ence and  convention.  He  gave  me  such  a  hearty  greet- 
ing and  kindly  encouragement  that  I  felt  I  had  found  a 
permanent  friend.  A  few  years  later,  at  another  con- 
vention Mr.  McBumey  took  me  aside  and  gave  me  some 
timely  advice  which  at  the  time  appeared  rather  severe, 

93 


yet  ere  long  I  discovered  that  it  was  the  best  service  he 
had  ever  rendered  me. " 

Another  leader  in  the  secretaryship  writes: 

"In  September,  1881,  I  went  to  New  York  from  my 
New  England  home  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
association  work  in  that  city  while  awaiting  a  definite 
call  to  a  field.  My  experience  had  been  limited  to  a 
small  town  association,  but  through  the  persuasion  of 
state  and  international  secretaries  I  had  given  up  busi- 
ness plans  and  had  fully  determined  to  enter  the  associa- 
tion as  a  life  work.  Mr.  McBumey  welcomed  me  imme- 
diately upon  my  arrival  in  New  York  and  for  the  first 
time  I  thus  came  in  contact  with  his  strong  personality. 
That  evening  he  in\nted  me  to  dinner,  and  afterward  I 
accompanied  him  to  a  meeting  of  the  managing  com- 
mittee of  the  Bowery  branch.  During  the  following 
week  he  offered  words  of  encouragement  and  instruction, 
and  cheered  and  strengthened  me  for  the  work  I  was 
soon  to  enter.  I  have  always  felt  much  indebted  to  him 
for  the  inspiration  which  came  to  me  from  his  life  at  this 
pivotal  time  in  my  experience;  and  from  that  time  I 
have  greatly  valued  his  counsel  and  friendship. " 

Another    general    secretary    for    twenty- seven 
years  writes : 

' '  I  recall  with  so  much  real  satisfaction  my  first  meet- 
ing with  Mr.  McBumey.  It  was  shortly  after  my  appoint- 
ment as  general  secretary  of  a  New  England  city  in  1872. 
Time  cannot  efface  the  memories  of  that  hour,  of  his 
brotherly  advice,  wise  counsel  and  heart  sympathy  with 
me  just  entering  my  life  work.  We  met  frequently  in 
that  tower  room  during  my  nine  years'  stay  in  that  city. 
Then,  when  the  Master  indicated  my  removal  to  the 
west,  as  I  accepted  the  call  with  many  misgivings  he 
again  by  his  loving  sympathy  so  thoroughly  strengthened 
my  heart  and  hands ;  and  all  through  these  years  to  the 
time  of  his  death  we  were  close  together  and  an  intimate 

94 


friendship  grew  up  between  us  almost  akin  to  that  of 
Jonathan  and  David.  His  life,  his  work,  his  devotion  to 
Christ  and  the  service  of  young  men,  were  always  an 
inspiration  to  me.  Nearly  the  last  letter  I  received  from 
him  when  his  earthly  house  was  failing  expressed  solici- 
tude for  my  health  and  his  great  and  continued  interest 
in  our  work  in  this  far  away  western  field. 

"'I  take  the  liberty  of  enclosing  copy  of  a  letter  received 
from  Mr.  McBurney  written  on  the  occasion  of  the  com- 
pletion of  my  twenty-fifth  consecutive  year  in  the  secre- 
tarial office,  not  because  of  its  reference  to  me  personally 
but  because  in  every  line  it  breathes  the  great  soul  of  the 
man: 

•  • '  So  you  have  become  a  quarter-centenary  secretary. 
Pretty  long  title ! 

•' '  Your  work  in  your  first  field  placed  the  association  in 
a  position  of  usefulness  and  influence  such  as  it  had 
never  enjoyed  before,  and  your  going  to  the  west  and 
your  work  there  has  made  you,  with  God's  blessing,  the 
saviour  of  that  work.  ***** 

*  • '  While  you  have  served  men,  you  have  served  them  for 
Christ's  sake — not  for  the  praise  of  men  but  for  the  glory 
of  God.  You  are  loved  by  our  entire  brotherhood  as  few 
men  are.  I  thank  God  that  I  have  had  the  privilege  of 
being  associated  with  you  in  the  labor  of  love  to  which 
we  have  been  permitted  to  devote  the  best  years  of  our 
lives.'" 

A  veteran  in  the  state  secretaryship  writes : 

"My  first  acquaintance  with  Mr.  McBurney  was  in 
1880  at  the  secretaries'  conference  held  in  Chicago.  As 
one  of  the  younger  secretaries,  I  did  not  quickly  come 
into  intimate  acquaintance  with  him,  but  our  friendship 
grew  with  the  years.  His  remarkable  steadfastness  of 
purpose,  his  whole-hearted  loyalty  to  this  work  to  which 
he  had  given  his  life,  his  burning  enthusiasm  for  the 
association,  his  constant  desire  to  come  into  personal 
touch  with  young  men,  have  all  had  their  influence  upon 

95 


my  own  personal  life.  I  shall  hope  to  tell  him,  sometime, 
when  we  sit  in  the  day  that  has  no  twilight,  of  the  effect 
of  his  life  upon  mine. " 

The  first  secretary  of  the  international   com- 
mittee for  work  among  students  writes : 

• '  The  first  glimpse  I  ever  had  of  Mr.  McBurney  was 
at  the  international  convention  in  1872,  whither  I  had 
gone  as  a  delegate  from  the  Hanover  College  Associa- 
tion. Thane  Miller  had  nominated  him  for  the  presi- 
dency of  the  convention,  and  urged  as  a  reason  for  his 
election  that  McBumey  was  going  that  summer  to 
Amsterdam  to  attend  the  World's  Conference  and  that 
it  was  very  fitting  that  the  American  delegate  should  be 
the  president  of  our  convention.  Mr.  Miller  had  also 
been  nominated  for  the  position.  Mr,  McBurney  stoutly 
opposed  the  substitution  of  his  name,  and  Mr.  Miller 
was  elected. 

"My  next  meeting  with  him  was  in  the  old  international 
office  in  the  association  building,  which  I  visited  during 
the  Christmas  holidays  of  1876  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
ferring with  the  committee  in  regard  to  the  proposed 
conference  of  students  which  afterward  met  at  Louisville 
in  1877,  and  inaugurated  the  intercollegiate  movement. 
Our  conference  was  very  brief,  but  he  expressed  the 
deepest  interest  in  the  proposed  student  movement. 

"  Our  next  meeting  was  in  Princeton  the  Sunday  after 
the  day  of  prayer  for  colleges  in  1877.  He  and  Mr. 
Morse  came  there  by  invitation.  I  had  much  personal 
conference  with  them  in  regard  to  my  life  work.  I  was 
then  beginning  to  think  seriously  of  the  secretaryship. 
I  well  remember  Mr.  McBurney' s  strongly  advising  me 
to  take  the  theological  course  which  I  had  been  contem- 
plating. I  also  distinctly  remember  the  strong  impres- 
sion he  made  upon  the  students  because  of  his  knowledge 
of  the  Bible  and  his  ability  to  use  it  in  meeting  the  objec- 
tions of  unconverted  men. 

' '  I  met  him  again  in  Louisville  at  the  time  of  the  organ- 

96 


ization  of  the  intercollegiate  movement,  but  the  most 
important  meeting  I  ever  had  with  him  was  in  August, 
1877,  at  the  Indiana  State  convention.  I  had  been  nom- 
inated by  the  college  conference  at  the  Louisville  conven- 
tion to  serve  as  college  secretary  of  the  international 
committee.  He  asked  me  what  my  plan  was  for  the 
extension  of  the  college  movement.  I  told  him.  He 
entered  heartily  into  it,  and  agreed  on  his  return  to  New 
York  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  committee  and  bring 
something  to  pass.  He  did  so,  and  the  result  was  that  I 
was  called  to  the  college  secretaryship  in  September.  I 
shall  always  feel  that  his  influence  in  that  matter  was 
more  potent  than  that  of  any  one  else,  and  that  he  there- 
fore exerted  a  determining  influence  upon  the  course  of 
my  life  work. 

"  I  have  been  associated  with  him  intimately  ever  since 
that  time,  and  never  more  so  than  during  the  years  from 
1888  to  1895.  He,  more  than  any  other  member  of  the 
committee,  strongly  believed  in  the  foreign  work  and 
encouraged  me  at  every  step  of  it. 

' '  It  was  a  great  privilege  to  me  when  I  last  sat  beside 
him  in  Clifton  Springs  to  tell  him  what  he  had  been  to 
me  and  to  the  work  for  which  I  have  stood.  I  was  told 
afterward  that  it  was  a  great  surprise  to  him  that  he  had 
had  so  dominant  an  influence  in  the  college  and  foreign 
movements.  I  think  he  rarely  realized  his  important 
relation  to  the  great  movements  with  which  he  was 
vitally  connected." 

A  friend  writes : 

"The  manner  in  which  he  greeted  a  young  man  made 
an  indelible  impression.  It  was  quiet,  earnest,  loving. 
The  clasp  of  his  hand  expressed  all  this,  and  no  one  failed 
to  be  affected  by  it.  His  sympathetic  nature  won  the 
heart  of  the  stranger  in  the  city  and  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  be  led  into  helpful  associations.  Young  men 
who  had  lost  hope  because  of  prodigal  living,  and  had 

97 


reached  the  prodigal's  forlorn  estate,  were  lovingly  led 
back  to  a  heavenly  Father's  heart. 

• '  A  young  man,  a  frequent  visitor  to  the  association,  was 
one  evening  accosted  by  Mr.  McBumey,  who  had  with 
the  keen  intuition  of  his  loving  nature  observed  that 
some  burden  oppressed  him.  The  manner  of  the  young 
man's  replies  to  his  kindly  enquiries  satisfied  him  that 
the  matter  was  a  serious  one.  He  drew  him  affection- 
ately into  his  private  office  and  there  listened  to  a 
romantic  but  unhappy  story  of  a  secret  marriage,  parental 
opposition,  separation,  despair.  His  good  advice  deter- 
mined the  young  man's  course  of  action  and  saved  him. 

"A  gentleman  who  knew  him  well  says  that  while 
he  had  known  many  men  intimately,  some  of  them 
accustomed  to  carry  the  burdens  of  multitudes,  he  never 
had  but  one  friend  from  whom  he  could  always  ask 
counsel  when  in  perplexity  with  the  same  assurance  of 
wise  and  loving  help.  To  him  he  kept  going  for  advice, 
for  sympathy,  and  as  a  young  man  even  for  financial  aid, 
and  always  with  the  same  result.  One  felt  that  he  not 
only  gave  wise  counsel  but  gave  himself." 

A  friend  writes : 

*'  As  an  illustration  of  Mr.  McBumey's  thoughtfulness 
and  interest  in  every  one,  however  overlooked  and  neg- 
lected, an  incident  occurs  to  my  mind  that  powerfully 
impressed  me  at  the  time. 

"  Mr.  McBumey  lived  in  the  tower  of  the  Twenty-third 
street  association  building,  in  two  rooms  overlooking  the 
city.  The  living  room  was  thoroughly  interesting,  filled 
with  picturesque  bookshelves,  curios,  bric-a-brac, — a 
thousand  and  one  objects  of  interest, — and  fragrant  with 
the  spirit  of  its  occupant  who  thus  in  more  ways  than 
one  dwelt  near  to  heaven.  One  rainy  day  he  was  in  this 
room  with  several  amanuenses  and  others,  engaged  in 
correspondence  and  in  preparing  the  material  for  the 
association  monthly  publication.  In  the  midst  of  the 
scratching  of  pens  and  the  rustling  of  papers  a  little 

98 


district  messenger  boy  who  had  climbed  up  the  weary 
stairs  from  the  wet  of  the  street  brought  in  a  message. 
As  he  was  leaving  Mr.  McBumey  unobtrusively  detained 
him  by  asking  him  a  few  simple  questions  to  put  him  at 
his  ease,  and  then  left  his  work,  laid  aside  the  mantle  of 
haste  that  had  before  enveloped  him,  walked  with  the 
boy  around  the  room  showing  him  various  objects  of 
interest  and  the  views  from  the  windows,  in  short,  made 
him  feel  as  if  he  were  a  real  human  being  instead  of  a 
mere  messenger  boy.  Such  an  extraordinary  act  on  the 
part  of  a  busy  man,  I  have  never  been  able  to  forget.  It 
was  a  simple  thing  to  do,  but  it  serves  to  show  how  gen- 
uine was  his  love  of  humanity. 

'  ♦  One  rainy  evening  before  dinner  I  was  walking  with 
him  when  we  overtook  a  grocer's  errand  boy  with  a  basket 
of  groceries  on  one  arm  and  several  bundles  of  kindling 
wood  stacked  up  on  the  other.  At  the  moment  we 
reached  him  the  kindling  wood  toppled  over  on  the  pave- 
ment. It  was  not  in  the  way  of  pedestrians,  and  after 
the  manner  of  New  Yorkers,  I  would  ne .  ^r  have  given 
the  incident  a  second  thought  had  not  Mr.  McBurney 
said  quietly,  "Wait  a  moment,"  and  gone  over  and 
helped  the  boy  to  load  up  again.  In  one  way  I  felt 
embarrassed  by  his  kindness  to  the  boy,  as  selfishness 
often  is  by  generosity,  but  in  another  I  bowed  my  head 
in  humble  obeisance  to  the  image  of  the  Christ  my  heart 
beheld.     I  am  sure  it  is  what  Jesus  would  have  done. 

"  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  incidents  with  which 
I  am  acquainted  illustrating  his  unselfishness  was  his 
refusal  at  one  time  to  accept  from  the  board  of  directors 
an  increase  of  salary  on  the  plea  that  he  did  not  need  it, 
being  single,  and  his  insistence  that  the  contemplated 
increase  be  bestowed  upon  his  associate  in  ofiice,  who  was 
a  married  man  with  children.  He  gave  away  his  money 
as  quickly  as  it  was  earned  and  kept  little  for  himself. 


99 


RESOLUTIONS 


Resolutions  passed  by  the  International  Com- 
mittee of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ations : 

At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  committee,  held  January  12, 
1899,  the  following  minute  was  unanimously  adopted: 

Our  committee  and  the  whole  association  brotherhood 
in  this  and  other  lands  have  suffered  a  severe  bereave- 
ment in  the  death  of  Robert  R.  McBumey,  and  the  com- 
mittee desire  to  place  upon  their  minutes  an  expression 
of  their  profound  sense  of  loss  and  of  their  brotherly 
affection  and  appreciation  of  the  character,  work  and  life 
of  their  associate. 

Mr.  McBumey  was  connected  with  the  committee  as  a 
leader  from  its  appointment  in  1866.  His  connection 
with  it  as  an  active  executive  member  ceased  in  1895, 
but  he  continued  as  an  advisory  member.  It  was 
on  his  motion,  as  chairman  of  the  Albany  convention 
committee  in  1866,  that  the  present  international  com- 
mittee was  located  in  this  city  by  that  convention.  He 
therefore  appreciated  and  had  part  in  defining  from  the 
beginning  the  function  and  work  of  the  committee,  and 
during  the  first  thirty  years  of  its  history  he  was  one  of 
the  most  active  members  in  its  deliberations  and  conclu- 
sions, in  explaining  and  reporting  its  work  at  conven- 
tions, and  in  taking  part  in  that  work  on  the  field  of  the 
committee's  service.  It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  value 
of  the  contribution  which  he  brought  to  the  committee's 
administration  and  work.     During  these  thirty  years  he 


was  the  leading  general  secretary  of  the  country  and  of 
the  world,  for  it  was  during  his  secretaryship  that  the 
New  York  association,  through  the  erection  and  occupa- 
tion of  the  Twenty-third  street  building,  sprang  to  the 
leadership  of  the  associations  of  the  entire  brotherhood. 
What  he  brought  to  the  committee's  deliberations  and 
action  was  the  result  of  his  growing  achievement  as  gen- 
eral secretary  of  the  New  York  association,  where  he 
was  settling  the  problem  of  the  work  and  function  of 
the  association  more  successfully  than  any  other  sec- 
retary ;  as  father  and  founder  of  the  state  work  of  New 
York;  and  as  leader  of  the  American  brotherhood  of 
general  secretaries  which  in  its  annual  meetings  was 
defining  and  working  out  from  year  to  year  under  his 
guidance  the  function  and  qualifications  of  the  general 
secretaryship.  Through  him,  therefore,  the  committee 
and  its  secretaries  were  always  kept  in  contact  with  the 
forward  line  of  association  advance  and  development. 

But  Mr.  McBumey  was  also  among  us  not  only  as  an 
association  leader  of  extraordinary  capacity  and  qualifi- 
cation, but  as  a  brother  beloved  for  his  own  sake,  full  of 
consecration  to  this  work  in  Christ's  name,  and  full  also 
of  the  spirit  of  his  Master.  Fellowship  with  him  was 
not  only  profitable  and  helpful  but  delightful,  and  as  we 
mourn  his  loss  we  also  rejoice  in  the  thought  of  that 
certain  and  blessed  reunion  in  a  closer  fellowship  with 
our  Lord  himself  which  will  prove  as  unending  as  it  will 
be  satisfying. 

Resolutions  passed  by  the  New  York  State 
Committee  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations : 

At  a  meeting  of  the  New  York  State  Committee  held 
March  30,  1899   the  following  resolutions  were  adopted: 

On  December  27,  1898,  Robert  R.  McBumey  died  at 
Clifton  Springs,  N.  Y.,  after  an  illness  of  more  than  a 
year.     He  came  to  America  from  Ireland  in  1854,  at  the 


age  of  seventeen,  and  visited  the  rooms  of  the  New- 
York  city  association  on  the  evening  of  his  arrival  in  this 
country.  In  1862  he  became  the  employed  superin- 
tendent of  that  association,  a  position  which  soon  devel- 
oped into  the  general  secretaryship,  the  first  in  the  history 
of  our  associations. 

The  growth  of  the  work  under  his  direction  resulted 
in  the  erection  of  the  building  on  the  comer  of  Twenty- 
third  street  and  Fourth  avenue,  the  first  building  in  the 
world  planned  and  erected  especially  for  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  use,  which  became  a  model  for  the 
three  hundred  association  buildings  of  this  countr}-.  His 
general  supervision  of  the  New  York  association  con- 
tinued until  his  death,  at  which  time  it  included  sixteen 
branches  and  ten  buildings. 

Mr.  McBumey  was  a  leader  in  the  association  work  of 
the  whole  world.  In  1866  he  called  the  first  convention 
of  the  associations  of  this  state,  from  which  our  state 
work  has  grown.  He  was  a  member  of  this  state  execu- 
tive committee  for  over  thirty  years,  rendering  incalcu- 
lable service  in  the  development  of  our  associations. 
The  definite  character  of  our  work  for  young  men  is 
largely  due  to  his  far-sighted  and  unswerving  stand  for 
its  biblical  and  evangelical  basis.  His  deep  piety  and 
earnestness  as  a  personal  worker  gave  him  great  success 
in  his  influence  over  young  men.  We  shall  miss  his 
wise  counsel  and  his  warm-hearted  greetings.  He  was 
faithful  in  every  duty,  a  true  servant  of  God.  He  rests 
from  his  labors  and  his  works  do  follow  him. 

Resolutions  passed  by  the  Committee  of  Man- 
agement of  the  Twenty-third  Street  Branch 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
the  City  of  New  York : 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Management  held 
February  27,  1899,  the  following  minute  was  unani- 
mously adopted: 


Whereas^  After  a  long  life  of  usefulness  and  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  young  men  of  New  York  and  the  world, 
Robert  R.  McBumey  has  been  called  to  his  eternal  home 
by  Almighty  God,  and 

Whereas,  Mr.  McBumey  was  from  the  beginning 
most  closely  identified  with  the  Twenty-third  Street 
Branch  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and 
by  his  frequent  presence  in  the  rooms  and  at  the  meet- 
ings was  a  continual  stimulus  to  every  one  who  met  him 
to  lead  a  better  and  more  useful  life,  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  members  of  the  Committee  of 
Management  of  the  Twenty-third  Street  Branch,  do 
express  our  great  sorrow  at  the  loss  we  have  suffered, 
and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  strive  to  show  by  our  lives  the 
benefit  that  we  have  derived  from  our  contact  with  Mr. 
McBumey,  forgetting  ourselves  and  trying  to  do  for 

others. 

Charles  A.  B.  Pratt, 

C.  W.  McAlpin, 

J.  Edgar  Leaycraft, 

Committee. 

Resolutions  passed  by  the  Literary  Society  of 
the  Twenty-third  Street  Branch : 

Whereas,  Robert  R.  McBumey,  for  nearly  forty  years 
general  secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associ- 
ation of  the  city  of  New  York,  and  not  only  ex-officio 
m^ember  of  the  Literary  Society  of  the  Twenty-third 
Street  Branch  but  also  by  personal  choice  a  charter 
member  thereof,  has,  in  the  providence  of  God,  departed 
this  life ;  and 

Whereas,  As  an  earnest,  active  and  enthusiastic  friend 
of  the  Literary  Society  and  of  the  individual  members 
thereof,  as  well  as  by  his  personal  uprightness  and  integ- 
rity and  his  deep  interest  in  young  men  in  general,  he 
has  both  merited  and  received  our  affection  and  esteem ; 
therefore  be  it 


Resolved,  That  in  his  death  the  Literary  Society  of  the 
Twenty-third  Street  Branch  has  experienced  the  loss  of  a 
sincere  and  trusted  member,  friend  and  counsel]  or,  one 
who  was  at  all  times  ready  and  willing  and  efficient  to 
advance  the  best  interests  of  the  Literary  Society  and  of 
its  members ; 

Resolved,  That  in  common  with  all  who  are  interested 
in  the  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  we 
sorrow  under  the  loss  which  his  decease  has  occasioned, 
while  we  rejoice  with  them  in  the  rich  heritage  of  char- 
acter, good  deeds  and  beneficent  influence  which  he  has 
left  behind  him. 

William  George  Greene, 

Recording  Secretary. 

Resolution  passed  by  the  Managing  Committee 
of  the  Boys'  Department  of  the  Twenty- 
third  Street  Branch: 

At  the  January  monthly  meeting  of  the  Managing 
Committee  of  the  Boys'  Department  of  the  Twenty-third 
Street  Branch,  the  following  resolution  was  carried  unan- 
imously: 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  committee,  having 
learned  with  deep  regret  of  the  "falling  asleep"  of  Mr. 
Robert  R.  McBumey,  our  beloved  general  secretary, 
desire  to  express  their  sincere  sympathy  and  to  place  on 
record  their  sense  of  the  great  loss  sustained  by  the  boys' 
departments  and  the  association,  not  only  in  this  city  but 
throughout  the  world,  through  the  demise  of  our  true 
friend  and  brother,  whose  place  it  will  be  impossible  to 
fill  in  the  hearts  and  affections  of  the  members  of  the 
New  York  City  Association. 

Harold  W.  Buchanan, 

Chairman  Boys'  Department. 
Guy  C.  Mitchell, 

Secretary  Boys'  Department. 

104 


Resolution  passed  by  the  Committee  of  Man- 
agement of  the  Harlem  Branch  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  the  City  of 
New  York: 

At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Manage- 
ment of  the  Harlem  Branch  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted: 

Resolved,  By  the  Committee  of  Management  of  the 
Harlem  Branch  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion that  we  place  upon  our  records  a  minute  expressing 
the  deep  sorrow  of  the  committee  at  the  recent  death  of 
the  general  secretary  of  the  New  York  City  association, 
Robert  R.  McBurney.  Mr.  McBumey's  labors  in  behalf 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  are  so  univer- 
sally recognized  as  the  main  cause  for  the  great  develop- 
ment and  successful  operation  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Associations  throughout  this  country,  that  the  place 
he  has  filled  cannot,  we  fear,  ever  be  adequately  supplied. 
The  combination  of  qualities  in  him  was  so  remarkable 
and  so  calculated  to  equip  him  for  his  life  work,  that  it 
seems  as  though  a  special  providence  directed  him  to  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  while  it  was  still  in 
its  infancy.  Personally  he  was  beloved  by  every  one 
and  the  influence  of  his  life  will  continue  to  increase  in 
strength  and  importance  for  many  years  to  come. 

W.   S.   M.    SiLBER, 

Recording  Secretary. 

Resolution  passed  by  the  Committee  of  Man- 
agement of  the  Students'  Club  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  the  City  of 
New  York: 

The  members  of  the  Committee  of  Management  of 
the  Students'  Club  recognize  the  vital  relation  that 
Mr.   Robert  R.  McBuraey  has  borne  to  the   Students' 

105 


Branch  of  the  New  York  City  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  from  its  inception,  and  know  that  even  dur- 
ing his  last  illness  he  was  strong  in  his  afifection  for  it. 
His  memory  will  be  a  constant  inspiration  to  those  who 
knew  him,  and  those  whom  he  left  behind  will  strive  to 
emulate  his  example  in  devotion  to  the  simple  teachings 
of  his  Master  and  in  consecration  to  the  work  of  leading 
young  men  one  by  one  through  sympathetic  words  and 
helpful  ofl&ces  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Herve  W.  Georgi,  Secretary. 


Resolutions  passed  by  the  Board  of  Manage- 
ment of  the  Washington  Heights  Branch  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
the  City  of  New  York : 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Management  of  the 
Washington  Heights  Branch  of  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  of  New  York,  held  December  31,  1898, 
the  following  memorial  resolutions  were  adopted : 

Whereas,  In  the  order  of  Divine  Providence  our 
beloved  brother,  Robert  R.  McBumey,  has  been  called 
from  labor  to  reward,  and  our  hearts  have  been  deeply 
moved  thereby;  therefore, 

Resolved,  that  in  the  absence  of  our  brother  and 
fellow  laborer,  the  members  of  this  Branch  and  the  young 
men  of  kindred  associations  will  greatly  miss  the  wise 
and  helpful  counsel,  the  Christian  cheer  and  sympathy 
of  him  who  was  notably  and  many  times  their  personal 
friend  and  benefactor. 

Resolved,  That  our  departed  brother  was  endeared  to 
the  members  of  this  Branch  by  his  presence  so  often 
with  us  in  our  councils  and  his  kindly  and  self-sacrificing 
interest  in  our  welfare ;  that  we  will  ever  cherish  a  pro- 
found veneration  for  his  long  and  faithful  services. 

106 


Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  General  Board  of 
Management  our  heartfelt  sympathy. 

E.  B.  Treat, 

J.  Berg  Esenwein, 

H.  J.  Robinson, 

Cotntnittee. 


Resolutions  passed  by  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion of  the  City  of  New  York,  January  5, 
1899: 


The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  com- 
mon with  Christian  associations  throughout  the  country, 
mourns  sincerely  the  death  of  Mr.  Robert  R.  McBumey. 

As  one  of  the  ten  original  incorporators  of  the  associ- 
ation and  always  on  its  advisory  board,  Mr.  McBumey 
shared  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of  the  early  years 
of  the  association's  history  and  for  twenty-seven  years 
sustained  an  unfailing  interest  in  its  work.  To  his  clear 
judgment,  wise  methods,  and  rare  fidelity,  are  due  in  a 
large  measure  the  growth  and  expansion  of  the  associa- 
tion. 

In  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  faithful  service, 
and  in  keen  appreciation  of  the  great  loss  the  association 
has  suffered  in  Mr.  McBumey's  death,  the  executive 
committee  places  on  its  records  this  memorial  minute. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Robert  R.  McBumey, 
we  profoundly  appreciate  the  loss  to  this  board  and  to 
this  association  of  one  whose  cooperation,  sound  advice, 
and  willing  self-sacrifice,  through  years  of  patient  toil, 
wrought  uniformly  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of 
his  fellowmen.  His  life  was  an  example  of  Christian 
endeavor  and  his  memory  will  be  an  inspiration  for  the 

107 


young  men  and  women  of  this  and  other  lands,  in  whose 
interest  and  welfare  he  forgot  his  own. 

John  S.  Bussing, 

Secretary. 


Extract  from  the  Thirty-first  Annual  Report  of 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  for  the  United 
States  of  America  : 

Of  the  very  special  loss  sustained  by  the  Alliance  in 
the  recent  death  of  Mr.  R.  R.  McBumey,  for  so  many 
years  one  of  our  most  faithful  members  and  most  useful 
officers,  we  desire  to  make  special  record.  His  counsels 
were  wise,  his  readiness  to  give  personal  labor  was  con- 
stant, and  his  faith  in  Christian  cooperation  as  a  means 
of  advancing  Christ's  kingdom,  was  unfailing.  Modest, 
unselfish,  sympathetic,  strong,  he  was  loved  and  honored 
by  all  who  knew  him.  Rarely  does  a  single  life  admit  of 
such  abounding  toil  for  the  Master,  or  enjoy  the  reward 
of  such  grand  results.  The  history  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  in  this  country  and  throughout 
the  world,  is  part  of  the  biography  of  R.  R.  McBumey. 
His  place  in  the  deliberations  and  activities  of  this 
alliance  cannot  easily  be  filled. 

L.  T.  Chamberlain, 

General  Secretary. 


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